Average Life
by Strikey-Chan
Summary: Her outside? A dork. Her inside? A singer livin' the life. His outside? An ass. His inside? Still an ass - but a slightly more lovable ass. When girl and guy finds out that they can 'magically' write to each other using a diary as easy as Facebook chat, that diary can actually become your best friend - even in your worse situations. Unless the Goddess is trolling, of course...
1. Thug Life

**Chapter One:**

**Thug Life**

_**12TH APRIL, MONDAY**_

* * *

The girl took a step into the classroom. No one seemed to notice as usual. She placed her file on her table, and only realized then someone was sitting on her seat, with her back turned talking to someone else.

"Excuse me..." The girl mumbled. "This is my seat..."

The girl who sat in the chair ignored the mumbling mess, treating her as of non-existence. She hesitated with poking the girl with her finger. She didn't like being rude. It would lead to fights, which led to unnecessary action. That was bothersome. Instead, she went to the back and sat on a new, free but dirty table. Not giving another care to the world, the girl with oversized glasses and clothing opened a page of a manga volume.

The class door rattled as it opened. A handsome silver-haired teacher walked in. Immeadiately everyone went back to their regular tables. Said girl stood up and sat back to her original seat.

"Class greet." the class rep spoke. Everyone stood up. "Good morning, Mr. Mikhail." they bowed, and sat back again.

"Good morning, class," the young teacher said as he went through papers on his desk. "First thing's first," he started. "There has been a slight change of the History test being held today. It will be tested tomorrow instead."

A few sighs of relief came from the students. "I didn't even study." Denny, one of the class – err, clowns, said carelessly out loud.

Mr. Mikhail raised an eyebrow. "Well, be grateful that you said that. I'm placing an extra pop quiz for tomorrow. It's a surprise pop quiz, and given by this class's academic standard, I advise you to read all your notes. Plus the guidebook." he said.

Everybody shot dirty looks at Denny. He sweatdropped.

The class rep, Yuri, raised her hand. "Why was it delayed?" she asked calmly.

Mr. Mikhail looked up from his pile of papers and sighed, letting his head fall to his hand. "Thank you, I thought no one would ever ask." he waved a hand. "As all of you know, your teacher here is very busy with his time. The other class I teach has a new student, and I have the responsibility of teaching him things he hasn't caught up with. Such a pain."

"Why didn't you ask one of your other students in that class to do it?" Felicity questioned.

"G class."

"Oh." Feli said quietly. The G class was the bottom of the food chain in study, and that class only had like – ten people. Well, eleven, considering the new transfer kid Mr. Mikhail had talked about.

"People just get more stupid each and every day." Dirk rolled his eyes. Golden haired Gretel (who was sitting beside him) rolled her eyes. "And I suppose you get an A for all subjects." she muttered sarcastically.

"Gretel is right – Just because you're in the C class doesn't make you a genius. Just look at the ones in the classes above you – you can hardly match up against them." their teacher remarked. "How I envy the A class teacher – badly." he sighed.

A few 'Pffts' here and there.

"There are so little people in this class who are actually smart." the silver-haired man lamented. "If your class performance keeps this up any longer, I'm going to get in trouble."

"It's only April, Mr. Mikail." Denny muttered.

"Anyway," the teacher coughed. "Would you please take out your History textbooks and turn to Chapter you." he said before turning to the whiteboard.

"Hey Gretel~" Dirk poked the blonde's shoulder next to him. "I didn't bring my book."

The sceptical girl had her eyes facing the book, refusing to look next at him. "And?"

"Can we share?"

Gretel gave him an annoyed stare, and didn't answer.

Dirk looked at her expectantly.

"I call for two bucks." she huffed, before linking their tables together and placing the thick item in the middle. Mr. Mikail had all mentioned to his kiddie kiddie winkies at the beginning of the year that 'if you didn't bring yo' book, (on purpose or not) you were allooweeed to pull up the closest person next to you and poke 'em and get 'em to share tables. And the asked person gets to bribe money in any way possible. It was sharin' and carin' this way. Sharin' and carin'.

Mr. Mikail taught for a looooong time. Rio knew the most awesomest and most effective tricks to everything being a dorky and nerdy student. She would raise her hands, ask questions, even though she had no idea what _da heck_ the teacher was saying, make it _look_ like she was taking notes, but really all she was doing was reading manga underneath her so-called-history-papers.

Time skip to an hour later with teacher ramblin' about stuff.

"Alright," Mr. Mikail spoke suddenly. "Can anyone tell me when were the earliest Korean pottery dates known to be around?"

No hands were raised. The teacher sighed. "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously." the class replied in sync.

"History counts for thirty percent of your grade, you know." Mr. Mikail folded his arms sternly.

Still no hands were raised.

The teacher scowled. Denny sat laid back, with his legs on his table. "Mr. Mikail, you are clearly lying on the thirty percent thing." he remarked.

Mr. Mikail narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean? And please put your legs down. It's very rude."

The brunette did as the teacher told him to, but he however gave Mr. Mikail a look and smirked. "Mr. Bob's name ring a bell?"

Mr. Mikail eyes narrowed. "Pssh – pfft – what are you talking about, Denny?"

Denny casually took out a voice recorder – yes, a real live one – and waved it in front of the teacher's face. The class all raised eyebrows, but none dared speak against the legendary battle between said student and teacher.

To the C class, this was nothing new.

Mr. Mikail was sweating. Smirking, Denny pressed his finger against the play button and let the whole class listen to what gold was in that baby.

"_Hey Bob."_

"_Hey Mikail."  
_

"_Crazy weather we're having today, huh?"_

"_Yes, I guess so."_

"_Hey when's your next... test? Let's collaborate."_

"_Umm... Tuesday. I had to change the date because of some new kid moving in from my other class."_

"_Poor you."_

"_I know right."  
_

"_But it's okay, Tuesday's perfect. You know what, I'll have my test on Tuesday too and tell them that it counts as twenty percent to their overall grade."_

"_Nah, they get thirty percent."_

"_You think thirty's better?"_

"_Yeah, we have to make it stressful for this kids, you know. Give them a taste. On what it's like in the real world."_

"_It's hard out here for a pimp!"_

"_Life sucks at times."_

"_Such a stressful life we havin'."_

"_You know what, on Friday I'll give out a take-home test, and none of the answers are gonna be in the textbooks. That'll totally ruin their weekend."_

"_Mikail."_

"_Bob."_

"_You're a genius."_

"_Hurhurhur." **(1)**_

And so Mr. Mikail continued sweating. Not happening. So not happening right now. Dirk shot an accusing finger at the teacher. "You've been lying to us?!" he demanded in mock gasp. Voices of uproar were then thrown around the classroom.

"How could you, Mr. Mikail?"

"Yeah, how could you!"

"We trusted you!"

"Shame the non-believer! SHAME! SHAME!"

Mr. Mikail cracked a vein. "You can't just creep on teacher's conversations like that!"

Denny snorted. "You can't just lie to your students like that!"

"Well, you can't just -"

_**RINGGGGGGGGGG~!**_

The class all stood up. "Okay, thanks teacher, have a nice day, we'll all be going now~!"

And everyone magically disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Rio, in the midst of all the push-abouts and sweaty arms and legs and shit, was not surprised in the slightest as she was caterwauled to the next classroom. Nothing new at all for this class.

Yep.

Nothin' new.

* * *

What was going on right now?

School was over is what's going on right now.

"Hey, hey!" a girl sqealed. Her friend turned her head around. "What?"

The pig-tailed short pinkette caught up to her. "Have you heard about Xiro's new hit single?"

The pale-skinned Asian turned her eyes away boredly. "I'm not interested in music, Michelle." The pinkette then pouted and stuck out her lower lip. "Well, you're no fun, Iroha." she sulked.

It would be hard for anyone to believe the two were actually close friends. Well, they were neighbours anyway. They had too many differences. Michelle was cheerful and childish, while Iroha was quiet and serious. Michelle had bright, curled pink hair tied in pigtails, while Iroha had dark, straight black hair tied in a way someone would think she was a samurai. Michelle was often pointed out for being short, while Iroha was tall. Said narrator could go on and on.

"It's called _Take On The Red Moon __**(2)**_**.** It's awesome!" Michelle smiled as she talked about her favorite music artist.

_What kind of song title is that? _Iroha thought boredly. She kept staring on ahead. "She must be very talented." she decided to say. Michelle jumped up and down. "She is, she is!" the girl said excitedly. "She does a lot of covers for rock songs, and that's a step down. But her voice is still amazing though!" she said hastily, afraid to offend her idol.

Iroha's ears were pricked. "Rock?"

"Yeah. Why?" Michelle asked.

"Nothing – It's just that I don't think you're one to listen to somebody singing to a... genre like Rock."

Michelle folded her arms and gave that offended look – the look women gave when their husbands said they smelled like stink. "I said she did just _covers_ for Rock, she doesn't actually do -"

Michelle's high-pitched voice got cut off by a shy and soft feminine mumble. "Excuse me, you dropped something..." the voice said.

Michelle and Iroha stopped walking. They turned their heads around to see a pair of huge glasses. Michelle's eyebrows were raised, not expecting someone to creep up on them. The girl's gray cardigan looked too big; it looked as if it would fall off at any minute. Her hair was covered by some odd-looking beanie hat that was way too big for her head – not a strand of hair was seen. Her bag was slipping off her shoulder. Everything about the girl was a mess.

Rio Rachel McAfee _**(3)**_. The famous glassed-eyed nerd in school. Yuri, even though she wore glasses just like Rio, wasn't considered as a 'nerd', apparently. She was considered as a 'smart person that was cool'. This – _person_, was a total slob though. Her forehead was always covered by the beanie, glasses always covered her eyes and nobody ever saw her other than 'ugly'.

Iroha grabbed the book from Rio's hands. "Thank you." She was sincerely grateful.

Rio dipped her head and walked off.

Michelle let out a sigh of relief. "That was close. I thought we had to have a coversation with her or something."

Iroha looked on ahead aimlessly as they continued to walk through the corridors again. "What's so bad about talking to her?" she pondered calmly. Michelle gave her a look of disbelief. "Come _on_, Iroha! Just _look_ at those clothes! We can't even _see_ her hair, or her face, cause they're being covered up by an ugly accesory!" _**(4)**_ she spat in disgust.

"Then what happens when you take off that ugly accessory?" Iroha murmured. Michelle folded her arms. "She doesn't even have any curves. She's way too skinny. Her sense of clothes makes her look like a slob, but she already is one. I could go on and on," the pinkette snorted. "Her face won't make any difference."

Iroha's eyebrows intensed, which caught Michelle's attention. "What's up?" Michelle asked, curious to the sudden emotion. Iroha gave a deep sigh. "You..." she looked at the sky and intensified her gaze. "... You're seriously..."

The pinkette leaned closer. "Huh?" She was straining to hear what her friend was saying.

"Tch." Iroha muttered silently. Michelle was still looking at her expectantly.

The taller girl felt a rush of irritation up her spine for some reason. She glared her narrow eyes to Michelle's huge bubbly ones. Michelle flinched in surprise at the sudden look. "It's nothing. Let's just get home quickly."

And with that, their conversation ended.

* * *

Rio was at the store, wanting to buy a new diary. She had stashed enough money in her pocket, and was hoping to purchase something decent.

The neighbourhood store didn't have many people around at this time, to her relief. Without hesitating, she pushed the door and entered, greeted by the cold air of the air conditioner.

Flashing a quick shy smile to the shop owners, Rio quickly made over to the section where the notebooks were always were. It was just a small section, all notebooks of different styles and sizes rowed neatly in a corner.

Someone else was also browsing around in that section. It was a teen who had shaggy blonde hair, and he was wearing a school uniform.

_Is he from my school?_ Rio pondered, instantly recognizing the school's logo on the teen's shirt. She refrained from looking anymore, thinking it was rude to stare. She instead focused on the number of notebooks in front of her, looking for a diary with a nice hard cover, decent amount of pages and if it was easy to write on.

Xiro's song suddenly began flooding to her ears as the store's music was turned on. Her eyes intensified.

_Pick what you need, and get out of here._ Rio told herself.

One black one caught her eye. It was thick and looked nice and smooth. It was the only black one left, on top of all the other same books which were light blue in colour.

Rio felt a weird pull to it. She wanted it. Problem was, that guy with the blonde hair was right in front of the rack with the black book.

"Excuse me..." she started. The other blonde stopped browsing and looked at her.

Rio almost flinched, but kept her gaze steadily. _His eyes are red._ "I just..." she leaned just enough so she could take the black hardcover from the rack. "Sorry, thanks..." she mumbled before dashing off to the cashier.

Awkward situation well done.

* * *

Rio opened her door of her home. There was no one, as usual. She lived alone. Her parents? Killed at an accident. Sibling? Fled with who-knows-who. They had taken all the money and left. The apartment was just like it was before, except... more empty. Rio had all the money she wanted, stashed in a secret corner, and the money would keep coming. If she ever went broke or something like that, she could run to her neighbour's home. They were kindhearted. They wouldn't mind helping her for a bit if she ever needed to pay the rent.

Rio flopped the door to her bedroom open and dropped herself to her plain bed.

She took off her cardigan, revealing her t-shirt. Rio took off the stupid beanie that hid her stupid hair. Her long bangs fell around her. She placed the oversized thing neatly across the table. The blonde slid off her glasses. She raised her head and looked at the mirror.

_I hate you, Xiro. I really do. _The blue-eyed girl glared at herself. No reply came.

What were those two girls' names again?

Ah, yes. Michelle Holmes and Iroha Suzuki _**(5)**_. They were talking about Xiro's new song, weren't they?

The Iroha girl didn't seem too interested. _She must not be a fan. _Rio thought.

She opened her desk drawer to reveal many, many envelopes and letters.

Instead of reading them, the blonde plugged her laptop to a wire and turned it on. She had lots of letters to read, e-mail or penned down. Without wasting time, Rio opened her Facebook, in two tabs. One with Rio's account, the other with Xiro's.

Rio Rachel McAfee's account never had any notifications. Hardly any messages, but there was time to time friend requests would pop up. Her profile picture was just a random one of some herbal tea.

Xiro's account, on the other hand, was exploding with notifications. The messages were frequent, and the friend requests were _always _full. It was a whole different world, alright.

The blonde, at the moment, began typing, updating Xiro's status.

_Just returned from school~! God, the teacher's rambles were SO boring. Someone save meeee! DX Anyone up for a sundae at Downtown later? :D_

And... click. Updated. Rio sat back and waited for a few seconds before smiling. Some comments were already appearing.

**Ardiana Jones (_6)_**

_I'll save you! -huggles-_

**Popuri KawaiiGirl**

_I wished I lived in your city D:_

**Michelle The Acrobat (Michelle Holmes)**

_Xiro, tell us where your school is already! OnO_

**Harry Garfield**

_OMGOMGOMG I'M AT DOWNTOWN NOW! :D :D XDDD_

The third comment caught her eye and Rio smirked. She liked seeing her fans comment. It made her feel mushy inside. And sometimes it was amusing too.

She loved her fans. Every single one of them. But sometimes when everything just became repeated, it made her feel... sick. Like when you listen to a nice song the first time, you love it. But if you keep replaying that song over and over, you just get tired of it.

Both Rio and Xiro's lives suck. The reason was pretty simple. People judged her. A lot. Needless to say, she preferred being Rio. It was nice seeing people who acted so goody goody to their idol criticize the same person – you really can't judge a book by it's cover, can you?

She didn't choose thug life.

Thug life chose her.

* * *

"Neil! Don't just barge in the house without a greeting of some sort!" a voice snapped.

The blonde felt a vein pop. "I'm home." he gritted his teeth and said it out grudgingly.

Without even giving a greeting to his so-called father, Neil went into his room, opened the door, threw his for-shit's-sake his demonic bag on his demonic bed, and slammed the stupid door shut.

Yes. Neil had anger issues. Don't ask.

He sat on the floor – seeing as how he slept on the ground – and took out a white book. He had wanted to take the black notebook in the store just now, but beanie girl beat him to it and took it instead. He was surprised how she didn't flinch or cower away and just – gazed at him. Usually looking at someone with red eyes made you want to get your ass outta there.

_Whatever. Her glasses were probably dirty or something._

Neil opened the white cover. The rest of the books were light blue back at the store, but there was for some reason a white one way at the back. He figured it would do. He really wanted that black one, though.

Picking a random pencil from his pencilbox, Neil began to write. He felt a vein pop as he remembered all the events happening today.

_**Okay, diary, so I just got you, and I'm going to say one thing - my day was BALLS.**_

_**Teacher's think he's a total smartass or something (He's got white hair too. That's weird.), all the stupid ass shit people there are freakin' stupid, and it seems I'm going to be casted out again. Wuat-ay-suh-puahzize.**_

_**First day of school – Shit.**_

_**First day of movin' in with so-called-daddy – Also shit.**_

_**The neighbourhood ain't shitty, though. I'm kinda surprised, but I'll take it. There were friendly people anywhere on the streets, and when I fell, someone actually asked me if I was okay. And there are a lot of cats in the neighbourhood too, huddled near the trash bins at the more grassy area with more trees. I'm satisfied, though, because when I went there to play with 'em, there were bowls with food and water. Somebody must've gone there to take care of the cute kitties too, right?**_

_**Yeah, the house and the school may be shit... (I can't imagine what's my soon-to-be-part-time-job's gonna be like...) but I'll go look at the cats there for time to time. That'll keep things from being too shitty.**_

Neil lifted the pen from the paper of the diary. He gave a huge sigh, and opened his eyes again.

_**It's nice to see some humanity restored in this world.**_

Neil almost flipped out. What the hell?

A sentence? A sentence appearing out of nowhere in his diary?

He was seeing things. Hallucinating. Today was so messed up that he was going cuckoo.

Neil locked his amber eyes onto the words that were glued to the book. He picked up the pen and wrote. Slowly.

_**Holy shit.**_

Done. He just wrote something completely crazy to words that didn't even exist. He really needed to get some rest. Neil picked up the other end of the hardcover book, and was about to close it and get some damn sleep when another sentence came back. His eyes widened with surprise and shock.

There, on the book, there was another written answer.

**_Shit ain't holy, brotha._**

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

**I have yet again started another series! Foolish, I know. I am fully aware that trying to balance time on four ongoing fanfics isn't a wise idea. But everyone makes mistakes, right?**

**So... This is actually a rewrite of the series (even though I only did until three chapters... .) and I have tried to make things better so... yeah.**

**I was spending too much time typing (I always lose track of time when I write fanfiction) and my mother was trying to pull me away from the laptop. I refused, and she said, 'Stop doing whatever writing you're doing and come here at the TV!' she huffed and said somemore, 'No wonder your social life is...' and trailed off. I was really struck by that sentence. I entered my room and continued writing without giving a CARE IN THE WORLD. (easily offended person) I would pick my readers before my [scumbag] friends any day, brother.**

**Conversation between Mikail and 'Bob' _(1)_ **

**Obviously Bob is an OC character, or otherwise the Bob from Magical Melody. Up to you. This conversation was inspired from a video. Go look it up. Just search for 'cheating in high school'. You can go watch all the cheating videos if you haven't yet. It's really hilarious.**

**Xiro's new hit single, _Take On The Red Moon (2)_**

**Not a real song, so you can't hit me, rules of the fanfiction :P**

**Rio Rachel McAfee _(3)_**

**I was really pissed when I found that the MC's official name was 'Rachel', because I was already getting so used and attached to the name 'Rio'. But then I found out that fanfiction had both names on the character list, and I was cool with it. But it still made me a little irritated whenever I see someone call her 'Rachel'. DX Oh well. That was why I put 'Rachel' as her middle name. I'm just glad the creators didn't change Allen, Neil, and Rod's names though. That would make me reeeally mad. ._.**

**Michelle's rant on how Rio is a slob _(4)_**

**I'm sorry if I offended anyone who likes Michelle. I just needed an antagonist. I don't hate on her, but she was on the lowest on my bachelorettes list. (with Yuri being the highest.) :/ So I was like... Why the heck not?**

**Iroha Suzuki _(5)_**

**She looks Asian. Plus 'Iroha' is a Japanese name. Makes sense that she has a Japanese surname too, right? I know that in Japan, surnames are in the front and the actual name is placed the back. But then... this is an English world. It makes sense, right? ('Yuri' is a Japanese name too, but she looks... Not Asian. Sorry. I'll probably have her to be a Caucasian-Japanese person and let her have an English surname sometime in the future.)**

**Ardiana Jones, Popuri KawaiiGirl, Michelle The Acrobat (Michelle Holmes), Harry Garfield **_**(6)**_

**Ardiana Jones: Some random name I made up.**

**Popuri KawaiiGirl: Up to you to decide if it's Popuri from MfoMT or not.**

**Michelle The Acrobat (Michelle Holmes): Obviously Michelle from this story.**

**Harry Garfield: It's the male MC. I'll have him appear in a later chapter, maybe. :D**

**~End of Footnotes~**

**Hope you have been entertained nicely by this chapter, and if not, well... Feel free to bash it out with a review. :) Anything (yes, even flame...) is appreciated!**

* * *

**STRIKEY-CHAN'S UPDATE-STORY LIST**

**_Gifts_:**

**If anyone here is a reader of _Gifts_, do not worry (for a while), I'm going to put up the second bonus chapter, and then stop for a little bit. I still don't know what to do after chapter four. I'll take time away from it (for a while) and pay attention to other fanfics, and then return I feel like it. So don't be surprised if it's like – March and I still haven't updated this story.**

_**My Fellow Cutter:**_

**There's barely anyone reading this, but I know there must be someone, as a review told me to continue the story. Don't worry, I will continue writing it after doing the second chapter of Average Life. I'm not that big on Angst and all, so I'll actually change settings a bit, and base My Fellow Cutter as a tragedyXcomedy. So that's something for you. :)**

_**Twisted Fairytales:**_

**Still on hiatus, I'm afraid.**

* * *

**And that's the end of a very long Author's Notes! I hope I didn't bore you and if I did – here's a rainbow! Everybody loves rainbows!**

**Good day to you, and this is Strikey-Chan, logging out.**

**~PEACE.**


	2. Shitty Life

**[Review Replies]**

**Sandy Star: D'aww, thanks! I did that ending in the chapter thing on a whim. XD I hope I don't confuse you if you're new to ANB. Thanks for leaving down a review! ^^**

**The One Magic: Thankies~ Your review means a lot to me. Hope you didn't wait too long for a new chapter! ^^**

**ShadowBloodNinja: First things first. I love your screen name. Second things second. I agree with you on every main character having a bland name. I don't mind if it's like Vaughn (his name is pretty exotic) but the names of the MCs are always so plain. XD Yuuki, Takeru, Hikari, Akari, Rio, Haruto, all of them are better than the English names they have now... And are you Japanese or did you just take Itami from Google translate? XD Lol jk, jk. Means a lot to me that you read this at midnight. So this is a nice, long review reply. Yep.**

**Anon123: There are a decent amount of fanfics for ANB now... But even if it seems little, that's because the game was just recently published in English. It makes me so mushy gooey inside when you said that my fanfic was... good. _ I'll try my best to keep writing, so thank you! ^^**

**Princess harvest: I'm using your line in this chapter, if you don't mind. o.o And thanks for the review. ^^**

* * *

**Chapter Two:**

**Shitty Life**

_**12TH APRIL, MONDAY**_

* * *

**And on the last chapter...**

_**Shit ain't holy, brotha.**_

**And so it continues...**

Rio didn't know what she was doing, in all honesty.

She had closed her laptop, read today's stash of fanmail, and had decided she wanted to try writing on her new black hardcover diary.

Now, Rio was answering some very odd sentences that were somehow scribbled in boyish handwriting all over the delicate book. She had wondered who had written on it – maybe someone thought it would be funny if he wrote some words on the diary and placed it back on the store– but Rio knew her eyes weren't lying to her when she saw words just – _appearing _on the paper when she had penned down a few words.

Rio felt as if she was messaging someone. It seemed to take a few seconds for the receiver to reply.

_**Who are you and what are you doing in my diary?**_

Her guard came rushing up. Beads of sweat rolled down her face. _Keep your cool. Keep your cool_. The blonde thought.

Shivering, she wrote with her cursive, calm handwriting. _**It's common courtesy to give your name before asking for others. And I should be asking you that question. **_She decided to write.

This time there was nothing. She waited for a few minutes. Still nothing.

The blonde sighed. It was really just her hallucinations, after all.

**_Name's Neil_.**

Okay... Maybe not. Rio narrowed her eyes.

_**It took you quite a pause to write that. **_She wrote.

_**Listen, can you just tell me who the hell are you? **_Rio's eyebrows rose at the foul language before sighing.

_**It's Rio.**_

_**Okay then, Rio, that wasn't so hard, was it?**_ The reply muttered on the book.

_**Can you please explain how this is happening? **_Rio wrote.

_**How the hell should I know? I bet this is just hallucinations or some shit and I'm sitting here, writing to some fucking invisible text and going crazy in my mind.**_

_Can't believe I'm talking to someone like this... _the blonde thought. Rio's mind reeled. _**Are you a spirit?**_

**_What? No! I'm a freaking human! _**The words came out in a stream of rush.

_**Okay, didn't have to make it so direct... **_Rio wrote. She had to move to another page by now to continue their conversation. On what she could tell, this person had a foul mouth. (Obviously.) But hey, one couldn't judge, and it was amusing to see this person's replies.

_Just maybe..._

_**I think I'm going insane...**__ '_Neil' wrote.

_**No shit, sherlock.**_Rio replied. She figured it wouldn't hurt swearing to this frustrated person.

_**I'm gonna guess this will stop soon. Visions.**_

Rio rose an annoyed brow. _**If you want to know, I'm human too. So I'm finding this as crazy as you do.**_

Silence for a few minutes.

_**Double-yoo-tee-eff.**_Neil finally penned down. Rio's mind – for some reason – was pulled back to the classroom with Mr. Mikail and her other classroom when Denny showed them the audio recording.

_**I feel for you, bro...**_Rio wrote down. She had a feeling that she would go on writing to this person for hours. He seemed... weird, cocky, and vulgar, but the last sentence Neil had penned down made her think twice.

Another silence for a few seconds.

… _**Fan of Xiro?**_

_**What?**_

_**That 'I feel for you, bro' is a catchphrase of hers.**_

That caught Rio by surprise. But she knew what to do. Act cool, go with the flow.

_**Yeah, I'm a fan of her.**_

Rio waited for a reply. She waited for the text to come rolling in on the fabric of her book. But all she was greeted with was awkward silence for some minutes.

Rio's frowned. This was just like one of those Omegle chats online. You go to the website, type down your interests, and get paired up to chat with some completely random stranger on the other side of the world. And you could get out of the conversation at any time. She soon got worried.

_**Neil? …You there?**_

A few minutes before a reply.

_**Sorry. Annoying dad annoying me as shit.**_

Rio sighed in relief. She didn't want to lose her friend so soon. _**You like to swear a lot, huh?**_

_**Got a problem with it?**_

_**Woah, we got a badass here.**_ Rio smirked as she tried to imagine her receiver's face.

**…**

_**What's wrong?**_

_**Now what? **_Neil replied.

_**What do you mean?**_

_**I mean, this is crazy and stuff, and...**_ The words trailed off.

_**Well, you're the most entertaining person I've been speaking – or communicating – with so far.**_ _**So I'm not complaining. **_Rio added with a drawing of a person shrugging at the end of her sentence.

_**You say that when we've only interacted for like what – five minutes?**_

Rio drew a sarcastic face on the page. _**Okay then, tell me about yourself.**_

_**How do I know you're not some forty-two year old pedo?**_

Rio facepalmed. _**And how do I know you're not a dirty rapist who kidnaps little children and brings them home at night?**_

_**I ain't a rapist! **_Neil wrote with a drawing of a vein popping at the end.

_**Rapist. Rapist. Neil is a rapist~ **_Rio penned down with a giggle.

_**If I was there right now in your face, I'd smacked you.**_

Rio giggled even hadn't have this much fun of a conversation in months._** It'd be nice to get hit by a guy. Plus that's a grammar error I spot, Neil.**_

_**Don't be such a grammar nazi.**_

Rio rolled her eyes. _**So tell me about yourself.**_

_**I can't trust a stranger.**_

_**Okay then. Any interests? **_

_**You're really a stalker, aren't you? :P **_Neil wrote.

_**Am not.**_

_**Am too.**_

_**Am NOT.**_

_**Am too.**_

_**I'm not going to rape you or your women at night, dammit... **_Rio penned.

_**Alright then. Tell me about **__**your**__** life, then. **_Neil exaggerated his writing on the word 'your'.

_**I like singing in shower. **_Rio answered.

_**Everybody**__** likes to sing in the shower, idiot. **_Came Neil's reply.

_**Umm... okay. I like... drawing...? **_Rio decided to write. She wasn't all too great on self-introduction.

_**You're pathetic.**_ She could imagine Neil sighing on the receiver.

_**You're an ass. **_Rio countered.

_**You're a gay whore. **_Neil shot back. Rio knew he didn't really mean it, but still she felt a vein pop.

_**Gay is not an insult. **_She shot back.

**…**

**_BURN!_ **Rio smacked her book in triumph after she wrote that word down.

**…** _**You got Facebook? **_

Nice way to change the topic. Rio rolled her eyes._** I'm kinda awkward at social stuff, you know. My name is Rio Rachel McAfee. Profile picture is of random herbal tea.**_

_**I don't care about all the social status stuff. My name's Neil Sonaric Williams. Picture is of the orange cat. Brb.**_

Rio dropped her pencil and leaned forward to start up her laptop again. She didn't have an Iphone or some sort – her sister and peeps took everything except secrect stash Rio managed to hide, one of them including her laptop.

The laptop was up and Rio once again logged on to her Facebook and began searching for Neil's name. She saw the orange cat profile picture that stood out from all the other 'Neil's and 'Neil Williams'. Not giving much thought, Rio clicked on it. She sent him a friend request, and few minutes later was accepted.

_Well isn't he popular. _Rio thought with her lips pursed. Neil had a lot of friends added – and believe me when I say a lot. Curiously, Rio scanned down the list of friends quickly. Majority of the list were consisted of girls. _Why is a girl attracted to such a vulgar guy like him?_ Her thoughts pondered. _Or maybe he's a pretty boy in real life. Yeah, that's it. I'll try to find a picture._

Rio eyes drifted back to her diary and to her surprise, a sentence was waiting for her already there.

_**I can't find any picture of any human in your album. **_It said.

_**I'm looking for your face right now, Neil. **_Rio rolled her eyes as she replied.

_**You won't find any pic of me anywhere. ==**_

Rio raised a brow. _**Oh really? Then why do you have so many females in your friend list?  
**_

_**Jealous?**_

_**PFFT.**_

_**Just don't bother looking for my face. Please? **_Said Neil's answer.

Rio frowned as she wrote. _**Why are you so...? O n O**_

_**You'll think I look weird.**_

Rio drew a facepalming emotion down. _**I've seen many faces, Neil. I don't think yours will be so bad considering the hundreds of girls you have as fb friends.**_

There was no reply for a few minutes.

_**I got homework to do. Bye.**_

_**NEIL!**_

Rio felt like raging on something. For some reason, she felt like something had been cut off from her – like a wire being unplugged. Maybe it was when Neil had closed the cover of the book. This was 'magic', after all. Goddamn magic.

Despite being angry at her companion who had just 'logged off', Rio knew it was no use writing anything. It was the same thing as trying to chat with someone when they were offline – they wouldn't reply, no matter what you did.

Rio sighed. Why was he getting so worked up with just his facial appearence? He was probably one of those people who took looks first more than anything. _Well then, I'm sure it'd be a disappointment if he ever sees me. _Rio thought bitterly.

The blonde casted a look at her clock. She was bored. She had a bothersome concert to go to at night later and had nothing to do meanwhile. And she didn't really feel like waiting for Neil to come back 'online' on the book. Yawning, Rio turned her laptop off, grabbed her pencilbox and a stack of paper and headed out from her home. She was in the mood to draw.

* * *

**_13TH APRIL, TUESDAY_**

Neil groggily opened his amber eyes.

They were met with violet ones. Those violet eyes belonged to a child.

… A floating child, in fact.

"HOLY-WHAT-THE-SON-OF-A-MOTHER-FRENCH-TOAST!"

Neil tried to push the body away from his sight, only to his horror he found that his hand went completely through the child's body. The floating child had a stoic look on his face, contrast to his lifeless eyes. His shaggy peach-coloured hair was clipped up at some places.

Neil was sobbing tears now. What had he done? Had a dead restless spirit come and wanted to kill him?

"I'M SORRY FOR EVERYTHING I DID, JUST DON'T KILL ME! I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO LIVE FOR! IF ANYTHING, KILL THAT OLD FAT ASS BASTARD! NOT ME! THANK YOU!" He cried out with his arms wrapped on his head. Mind you, he only had his boxers on.

Suddenly the child started giggling. Neil widened his eyes. "... What?"

"You're even worse than Luke!" he laughed.

Neil cranked a scowl. "WHAT?!"

The child hung from the ceiling, his shaggy peach hair falling down. He cracked a grin. "Yo. Name's Chase. You are one screwed up funny human." he remarked.

"WAIT, WHAT?!" Neil cried out. He could yell out as loud as he wanted to because at this time the old bastard wasn't at home.

"I'm here to explain about that thing." The child pointed his finger to the white diary on the top of Neil's desk.

Neil froze. "Is it yours?"

"Used to be."

"... Do you want it back..?"

Chase scowled. "I'm dead, dude. I don't _need_ it anymore."

Neil scowled back. These two could go for a scowling contest if they needed to. "And...?"

Chase dropped from the ceiling, landing on the floor on his head. It didn't hurt a bit. "I'm here to explain the Goddess's purpose for that thing." he spoke.

Neil shook his head. This didn't make any sense, at all. Here he was, talking to a spirit or whatever. "Why me, though?" he demanded.

Chase rose a brow. "Woah there, dude. Don't be so cocky thinkin' that you were reserved or somethin'." he floated once more. "You just randomly found it. And another person apparently randomly found the counterpart as well."

Neil wiped a sweatdrop from his forehead. "Counterpart? Does that mean that the other person has a – someone like you – visiting them as well?" he questioned.

Chase smirked. "Good question!" he did a back flip. "The counterpart of your diary is just a black one."

Neil's mind flashed back to the store.

"And no, only one of the two diaryholders get a 'guide' for them."

"Diaryholders...?"

"That's what one of the Goddess's told me."

Neil held his hands up. "Wait. There's more than one Goddess you're talking about here?"

Chase rubbed his chin. "Yeah~ There's the oldest one, the Fairy Goddess - she's way too airheady. Then there's the one who always seems to have a hobby of turning into a human, the Make-Up-Your-Mind Goddess. The third one is the one I don't like – the Trolling Goddess, and the last one is kind to all of us children, but for some reason hates her brother the Harvest King. The Tsundere Goddess." _**(1) **_he finished.

Neil gave him a look. "... What..."

"_Anyway_," Chase coughed. "I'm not here to talk about that." he pointed to the white diary. "You can communicate with the other person on the diary just like Omegle chat or some shit. If you ever run out of pages, then you can reset the diary by pulling that red bookmark attached to it. Be careful, though – it heats up a lot." he told Neil.

Neil gave a pokerface look. "Mmm hmm."

"The Trolling Goddess got angry, y'know." the ghost child giggled. "She said she wanted the girl to have the white one and you to have the black diary."

Neil frowned. "What's the difference?"

Chase folded his arms and floated upside-down. "Oh. I'm not allowed to tell you that. Soreeee." he smirked, which made Neil pissed.

"Whatever, brat. I'm getting ready for school. So you can go back now and leave me alone."

Chase stood on the chair. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. I'm your elder, so you have to respect me. And I can't go back." he said while spinning around. Neil scowled at the 'elder' part. "Why not?"

Chase gave the blonde a look. "I told you. I'm your so-called 'guide'. I can only leave you alone when you die -"

"When I die? That's a bit too extreme." Neil echoed.

"- or if you passed the book to someone else, or burned it, or destroyed it. But the last two options will probably get the Goddesses mad." Chase continued.

Neil looked at him in the eye.

Chase stared back expectantly.

"Okay, fine." Neil huffed, flinging a towel over his shoulder and heading for the bathroom. Chase gave a grin. "Neil, wait."

"What do you want now -" the blonde was cut off as suddenly the spirit child pounced on him, almost knocking him down.

"You can't tell anyone else about this." Chase's wide violet eyes and his sudden senile smile seemed to stab into Neil's soul. "I can hurt you. You can't."

Neil slowly got up, shaking the actual-solid-thing off his figure. "Wh -"

"I'll tell you a secret, okay, Neil?" Chase continued, still keeping that smile. "It's a really deep secret, and I'll be in trouble if I get caught."

Neil growled. "What do you want from me?" he spat.

The boy giggled.

"A secret, just between the two of us..."

* * *

"Alright class, the test is going to be held in second period. So I advise you all to read your notes now and don't waste any time, _unless_ you want an F to your paper." - That was what Mr. Mikail had said before annoucing 'Free Time' to the class and began sticking his headphones into his ears and placed a 'PLAYING MINECRAFT – LEAVE ME ALONE' sign on his desk. Now, all hell was breaking loose.

Rio felt a vein pop as the forty-fourth spit ball was 'accidentally' thrown onto her. The class was going hectic, carefree class rep Yuri was just sitting there holding a book and not bothering to quiet down her crazy classmates. Rio sighed and straightened her dummy nerd glasses – paper airplanes were in the sky, one of the light bulbs was just shot out, and everything was just going crazy.

Suddenly music flooded her ears. Not ordinary music, Xiro's music. _Judgemental_, the title was. Rio, for once, didn't grow annoyed at this song. This song was different from all the others, it was nice and soothing.

"Change the music!"

Rio's ears perked.

"Why, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong? I _hate_ Xiro! The way she acts in her music videos... She's like a _whore_."

Rio slowly turned her head to the girl who was lamenting. _Ooh! Hater! _Rio thought, almost cracking a smirk. The hater's other friends were know arguing with her, about which music was better and whatnot. Rio switched her smirk to a sigh under her beanie hat.

There were three things in this world she knew that two people couldn't fully agree on. First thing was religion. Second was politics. And third was music.

Rio reached into her bag. She was sleepy but feared that somebody would fire a spitball combo onto her while she slept. Instead, she took out the black diary. She opened it, and began writing. She didn't expect Neil to answer right away, but she just wanted to write to him, for some reason. It made her feel less quirky about the test. Made her less quirky about everything.

_**I got a test soon.**_

It wasn't much, but she still at least wrote a sentence. The concert Rio/Xiro had to sing for last night had seriously sucked the energy off her body, and she had to sleep at four AM. Writing to Neil somehow made her feel better, even though she knew he wouldn't reply.

_**Me too.**_

… Okay. Words taken back.

Rio frowned. If Neil was going to take a test soon just like she was, that meant he was also a student. (unless he was lying.) In a school. With like, classmates and everything.

_Now don't get your hopes up, Rio – this guy could be living in India for all you know. Plus he could lying too. _She thought to herself. Her eyebrows scrunched.

_Then again, who the heck in India's named Neil?_

Rio shook those thoughts out of her mind and began writing down once more. _**Can I ask a question?**_

_**Depends.**_

Rio hesitated. _**How old are you? And what's the subject you're taking for your test?**_ Both questions were out of curiousity.

_**Sixteen, first year of high school. History in second period.**_

Rio raised a brow at how easily he answered the question. Yesterday he was all suspicious, thinking she was a pedo or something. Yet now he was answering the personal thing on his age casually.

_Oh well. I'll take it._

_**Wait. You said you're a first year in high school? **_Rio asked once more.

_**Yeah.**_

_**I'm one too, and my history test is going to be in second period as well!**_ Rio wrote excitedly, thinking of the possibilities running through her mind. _**What's your teacher's name?**_

_**Woah, there, Rio. I think it is rather impossible for you and I to be in the same school, so wipe that out of brain right now. It's Mr. Bob.**_

Rio pouted in disappointment. So they weren't in the same class after all...

_On second thought, where have I heard that name before?_

She shook her thoughts out of her mind, just like Neil had told her to. _**Oh... I thought... :(**_

_**You thought nothing. Now wanna hear something?**_

Rio sweatdropped. _**Yes?**_

_**Are you in like, class right now? Can you move to the washroom or someplace where no one can hear you?**_

Rio was taken by surprise. _**Why?**_

_**Just do it.**_

_**Okay...**_ Rio obeyed, trusting Neil's words.

"Mr. Mikail, I'm going to the washroom for a bit..." she spoke out, but the teacher merely had his eyes on the laptop. Rio sighed over all the mayhem in the classroom and left, diary and pencil kept in her oversized large cardigan pocket.

She headed for the bathroom. One of the stalls was flying open freely. Rio pushed and entered. She placed the toilet seat down and locked the stall. She took out her diary and pencil.

_**Now what?**_

_**Are you sure you're in a place where no one can hear you? **_He wrote.

_**Yes, Neil, I'm perfectly sure. ==**_ Rio replied.

_**Okay. Now spell this out loud. V-O-I-C-E.**_

_**Why am I doing this again?**_

_**Don't question and just do it, woman.**_

Rio sighed, having lost all attempts of wanting to know what was going on. "Vee. Ooh. Ai. See. Eee."She said out loud. It felt weird.

She felt intense heat from the book on her lap. She jumped, not expecting to feel her legs being hot as if on fire. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw the book give an odd glow. A few seconds later, something came out from the diary.

Her breath stopped for a second.

"_**Can you hear me?"**_

* * *

Neil heard slight shuffling on the other side of the book. "Can you hear me, Rio?" he repeated. He was in a stall in the washroom as well, toilet seat down and with the diary in his lap.

"_**N-Neil...?"**_

"Yes, Rio, this is me." Neil said calmly. Chase was hanging upside down from the ceiling, giving the blond a look. Neil pressed one finger against his lips, telling the peach-haired child to keep quiet.

"_**How is this...?"**_ Rio's voice trailed off. Her voice sounded... high-pitched enough to be a girl's, that was for sure. Neil was embarrassed to have thought she was a pedo.

"I know. First that happens, and now this shit happens. It's like -"

Rio cut him off, now that she had the ability to do so. _**"I mean – how did you know what to do?" **_her voice sounded strangely familiar for some reason. **_(2)_**

Neil looked at Chase, who smirked. "Uh... I had a spelling test... And one of the words had the word 'voice' in it... And I was practicing out loud... So..." Neil mumbled.

Chase had told him what to do, but in order to call one another properly, the other person with the other diary had to response and perform the same thing within six hours. Neil didn't have time to write to her that morning, so he waited until first period instead.

"_**Oh, I see."**_ Rio's voice responded cheerfully. Neil sweatdropped at how gullible this girl was.

Chase tapped the stall's wall to bring Neil's attention, showing him his wrist, reminding the blonde to check the time. Neil looked at his own watched and swore. "Shit."

"_**What?"**_

"It's almost seven-thirty. Both of us had better be going, seeing as how both of us have shitty tests waiting for us in second period." Neil cracked a smirk, stashing his pen in his pocket and gesturing Chase.

"_**O-okay, but how do I turn this thing off?"**_

"I'll turn it off for you, but all you really gotta do is spell 'camomile' out loud." _**(3)**_ Neil placed the diary on the toilet seat. "Be careful, it's going to bring up some serious temperature issues on the book."

"_**Yeah, I kinda figured from just now..." **_her voice muttered. There was slight shuffling on the other side of the line. **_"'Kay, I'm ready."_**

Neil drew his breath. "See. Ay. Em. Ooh. Em. Ai. El. Eee." he suddenly snickered. "By the way, you have a cute voice." The book glowed with a white light. It soon returned to it's natural state. Neil picked the diary up and stashed it in his underwear. His pockets weren't big enough. So deal with it.

He got out of the bathroom, with Chase still tagging along with him and floating in the air.

"So... Now you can talk to each other."

"Yes. So much for 'just between the two of us'."

"You are so going to thank me."

Neil scowled at his ghost companion. "Even if I do thank you, you're going to get in trouble for breaking the rules."

"Meh. Maya will cover up for me or something."The boy floated aimlessly.

Neil made a sarcastic face as he began to walk up the stairs. "So young and such a bastard."

"I could say the same for you."

* * *

**Time skip to the end of school~**

Rio was in such high spirits today.

Now she could talk to Neil. How sweet was that? Of course, there was the possibility of him knowing that she was Xiro, but that didn't matter much. But there was something bugging her mind though. What if Neil had told one of his friends? He was popular (he must be) so it would be reasonable if he had blabbed about the whole 'magic-book-communicating-with-someone-' thing to someone.

It didn't take long for Rio to shrug it off though. Even if he did tell someone about it, she wouldn't mind if some people joined their conversations. This guy – like she mentioned before – could come from India, for all she knew. (even though it's hard to believe there's someone in India with a name like that.)

_By the way, you have a cute voice._ The sentence rang loudly like a bomb ticking off in her mind. Rio shook her head, trying to forget it. (with a face as red as a roman candle.) Neil's voice sounded deep – like rockstar deep but still soothing deep. Like - sexy deep.

Rio slapped herself.

The blonde was at the corner of the school's abandoned staircase. Despite the rumors of it being haunted, she didn't really mind if some random spirit was really living there. She just wanted to draw in silence, so it wouldn't really bother Mr. Ghost there anyway as she was being quiet.

_What's this?_ Rio thought to herself. There was a guitar laying in one corner of the small space surrounding her. The guitar was a classic one, slightly dirtied and smothered with dirt, but by the looks of it's strings, it was still in a playable condition.

Rio sat down and examined the guitar. She took her fat cardigan and beanie off, and removed her glasses. She felt her blonde bangs fall onto her forehead. It was okay to take her disguise off, since no one ever came here anyway.

_I'm tempted to play it. _Rio thought. Did one of the band club's members left a guitar here or something?

The sleek handle... Those inviting curves... The looks of those seductive strings...

_Screw it, I'm playing._

* * *

"What do you want."

"That was more of a sentence than a question, don't you think?" The man in front of the eating guy muttered.

"Hurry it up. I'm busy." The redhead said in annoyance.

"Busy with what? Eating pasta?"

"No, busy with being inspired." The bespectacled man munched on a meatball. The older male in front of him scowled. "I'm just here to report an order from the boss."

"Please don't call Mikail our boss. It sickens me, Soseki."

"Please respect your elders, Allen." Soseki reminded with a mutter.

"So what is it that you want?" Allen demanded. Soseki sighed. "We've lost our bass guitar player and lead vocal – once more."

The redhead spat his pasta out in disbelief. "What?!"

"Don't get it on me, Allen dear."

Allen quickly wiped his mouth with a napkin while banging the table with a fist. "Again? They were only in for like – two weeks!" he spat. "And then they quit?!"

"It seems so, Allen dear."

Allen folded his arms, leaving his scowl hanging on his face. "The band has been in such chaotic mayhem lately!" he attempted to flip the table, in which he failed miserably at. "Henry's been as idiotic as ever, Sanjay's screwing up everything with the screechy violin and it seems like only Yuri is playing properly!" he hissed.

"Yes, only your little sister is playing fluently, Allen dear."

"STOP CALLING ME A DEER!" Allen spat.

"I wasn't..." Soseki gave him a sceptical look.

"So does this mean I have to find random new members again or something?!" the redhead's cerulean eyes were scorching.

Soseki shrugged. "Boss's orders."

"UGH!" Allen huffed before tripping over and letting out a high-pitched scream. "AH!"

"And _you_ call _me_ gay." Soseki scoffed.

"Gay..." The redhead growled as he heaved himself up. "Is not an insult!" he spat.

Soseki waved a hand dismissively. "Whatever. I don't have time to deal with your PMS period or some shit. Just go find a random person and come back in one hour squat." he ordered and walked back the way he came.

"Damn it..." Allen cursed. "Ordering me around like that..." he didn't know where to look for suitable replacements, and Mikail was goddamn picky. He left the pasta onto the table and shoved his hands into his pockets and began walking through the corridors of the school.

He came into this damn school as a make-up artist, _**(4) **_not a person-job-hunter, for shit's sake. Allen huffed and began looking around for random people.

The tune of someone playing a guitar was heard. Allen perked his ears. This was a song of that ever-popular-artist's, Xiro. Allen tried to follow where the music was coming from. It was soft, but clear enough to tell his gut that the person playing the instrument was a skilled player.

_If we add that with drums, violin and a piano... _Allen felt a light bulb literally heat up on his head. God he needed to find where the tune was coming from now.

He came to a corner. This was the school's so-called haunted staircase or some shit. He gave a snort. He didn't believe in any of those random crap and the tune of the guitar was at it's loudest now.

He turned the corner, and at the far side of the staircase was somebody strumming the strings of the instrument. The person froze on impulse at seeing Allen.

Allen's eyes widened.

She had long, flowing blonde hair that was ever so silky. A lean figure, her legs were smooth and long, and her eyes were in a beautiful shade of cerulean. Allen made in eye contact with the girl.

There on the staircase, was the ever-famous singer, staring at him.

Xiro.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

**[Footnotes]**

"_**Yeah~ There's the oldest one, the Fairy Goddess - she's way too airheady. Then there's the one who always seems to have a hobby of turning into a human, the Make-Up-Your-Mind Goddess. The third one is the one I don't like – the Trolling Goddess, and the last one is kind to all of us children, but for some reason hates her brother the Harvest King. The Tsundere Goddess." (1)**_

**What. Don't look at me like that. I had to give nicknames to everyone, and I already mentioned that there was a trolling Goddess, didn't I? -rolls eyes-**

**Lols, jk jk. The Fairy Goddess is the one from the SNES (I think) with the purple hair. I always looked at her and saw those wings as a fairy and that look as 'airhead'. The Make-Up-Your-Mind Goddess is the one from Hero of Leaf Valley with the wavy short hair. You could marry her in that game and she turns into a human, doesn't she? And thus, her nickname. :/ I never did liked her. The Trolling Goddess is the ever-popular one with the green buns and annoying 'dum da DAAA' personality. I don't think she can be specified as a 'troll', but she definitely has the personality for it. :P In Sunshine Islands/Island of Happiness she begins to piss me off, for some reason. The Tsundere Goddess is the one from ToT and AP. She's, well, not really a tsundere, but I thought she might be one to her bro. (Harvest King. Grumpy dude.) If you don't know the meaning of tsundere, look it up. XD**

_**Her voice sounded strangely familiar for some reason.**_**_(2)_**

**As you all know, this is Xiro we're talking about, isn't it?**

"_**I'll turn it off for you, but all you really gotta do is spell 'camomile' out loud."**_**_(3)_**

… **So... When Neil and Rio uses their voices to communicate through the diary, it's like a phone. Naturally, they would have to hang up and stuff, right? I didn't know what else to activate a hang up word other than this. :/ I considered 'pollen', but then I thought of Hoppip from Pokemon. And I declined that possibility straight away.**

_**He came into this damn school as a make-up artist, (4) not a person-job-hunter, for shit's sake.**_

**I wanted to make a band in this story. (it comes into a later chapter.) I know that a make-up artist isn't important. But in every A New Beginning story I make, I just can't leave out Allen. Or Rod. Or Neil. They're like the only best friend trio in the whole HM series that I've grown so attached to. XD Rod gets his spotlight soon, I promise.**

**[End of Footnotes]**

**-sighs- Whew! It's four twenty in the morning and I'm still up writing. School starts in a few days and I know if I continue this habit of sleeping really really late, I'm going to be really really in trouble on the first day of school. BAH.**

**Had to stay up two nights to complete this. I hoped you liked it. And if not, well, you know, the usual... Leave the unsatisfied feelings in your review/comment...**

**I'm really happy to receive five reviews on a first chapter. It's been a long time since that happened. The number of followers and favorites were enough to had me rolling already. I feel so mushy like mushrooms everytime I read a review.**

**Okay, that's gross. (No offence to people who like mushrooms.)**

**My hands are losing the speed and accuracy to type now. I'm slowly shutting down. BAH. -flips out- Oh, and the review replies are always going to be at the top and the actual A/N at the bottom from now on.**

**This is Strikey-Chan, shutting down. **

**~ PEACE.**


	3. Band Life

**Chapter Three:**

**Band Life**

_**13TH APRIL, TUESDAY**_

* * *

Rio opened her mouth, giving a silent scream. A redhead dude with glasses who looked like he could be an extra member of _Shinee_ was staring back at her with blue eyes just a shade lighter than hers.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

The dude gaped his mouth slightly open. "Wh-"

"LISTEN HERE, YOU." Rio stepped forward and cupped his mouth with her hands, preventing him from speaking. "If you dare say ANYTHING – and I seriously mean ANYTHING – about a famous blonde singer roaming around in this school and saying that you saw her or any shit similar to that, I swear I will personally ask my manager to rip off your dick and forcefeed it to your face." She made sure her eyes stared into his.

Redhead kept silent for a moment. Rio took a breath and stepped back. Studying his frame, he looked like he could be a few years older than her, but he was still old enough to be an adult.

_Oh God. Did I just swear to a teacher?_

Redhead cracked a snicker, but not before raising his brows first. Rio gritted her teeth. She couldn't tell what was going through the Shinee-dude's mind now.

The bespectacled man grabbed her shoulder and shoved her against the wall. Rio flinched. His icy eyes were pinning her down with suspense. She had been driven to a corner.

The blonde tried to push him back, but his strength was obviously much more stronger than hers. _I wish Kyle was here right now._ Rio thought as she tried to imagine the big-muscled bodyguard's face if he ever saw this scene. _**(1)**_

"What the hell do you need to you shut up?!" The blonde demanded. If this man saw this opportunity to 'blackmail' her right now – then so be it. Unless...

_My body? _Her heart skipped a beat.

The redhead gave a quiet snicker. "Keheheh..." He leaned his head closer.

Rio braced for any move to be made on her. Her body intensified and she prepared her fists for the fight she knew she couldn't win.

"For somebody who's famous all over the world..." Rio heard the man mutter as he rested his head on her shoulder. "You are really stupid."

"Wh-what?!" came the unexpected growl as the blonde pushed him away.

The redhead fell on the floor with a surprised yelp. He looked at Rio before giving a smirk.

"Alright, my _dear Xiro_," he spoke with a voice that could make any girl nosebleed (much to Rio's inner disgust). "See, of course I'll keep your deep secret, I wouldn't dare spill it..."

The blue-eyed blonde tensed even more. What was this guy implying?

The bespectacled man raised his fingers to his chin. His cerulean eyes glowed with a certain kind of arrogance that Rio couldn't spell it out.

The man smirked.

"How about joining a band?"

* * *

Sanjay was in the school's large music room, testing and fixing his violin's strings. The quality of the instrument was crucial to the sound that would flow out. At a first glance, the violin seemed like a boring instrument to toy around with, but if you actually took the time to listen, the sounds it created was just beautiful.

Of course, that was just his opinion.

His opinions generally sucked.

Generally.

"Yo, 'Jay! What are you dooooin'?"

Ah, yes. That voice.

The silver-haired man turned his head away from the instrument. His eyes met with bright shades of blue that seemed to lit up it's possessor's face. Shaggy brown hair and blue eyes. Isn't it beautiful?

Well of course it was. Blue eyes are always beautiful.

"Hello, Henry. Fixing up my strings, the usual." Sanjay smiled politely.

Henry stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Hmmm... Don't you get tired around here?"

Henry Harry Hart. _**(2) **_The beat of the band. (a.k.a. The liver.) Instrument of the making? Drums.

"Not really. I enjoy it here." Sanjay replied, returning to his violin strings. "It's just like how an ordinary school should be."

Henry sat down on the stage next to him and sighed. "It's anything but ordinary."

Sanjay felt his arm lighten the pressure of the instrument, knowing where this conversation was going.

First of all – there were very few members in the band club. Some quit because they were pissed at the un-cooperation of the team members, and others left because of the massive pressure weighing on them. Sanjay had just transferred a few months back. It felt weird, being the only -cough- dark skinned -cough- kid in the entire class. It wasn't like where he was from. What was even weirder was that he was practically interrogated by somebody to join the band club. And when Sanjay (politely) refused, the next day posters of him being wanted had been hung all over the school.

Thug life baby.

"I remember when you had long hair." Henry grinned. "You looked so cool with that braid."

"People called me a sissy."

"And the sissy suddenly has a -decent amount- of fangirls right after you snip snoop your hair off." Henry said skeptically.

Sanjay caressed his now short bangs falling around his face. "The principal was so surprised when I told him my hair colour was natural..." he murmured to himself.

Henry gave a laugh. "Priceless." The brunette felt a perk go in his mind. "Have you heard about the news?" He asked, changing the topic briskly.

"Lanna?"

Henry smirked. "Nope, Mark too."

Sanjay's brows rose a little. "Wait, _both_ of them quit?"

"Markie said 'screw this' yesterday."

Sanjay sweatdropped. "Mark was a great guitarist... And, umm... Lanna's voice wasn't even that... err..."

Henry chuckled. "It's alright, Jay. No one's watching."

"Both of them sucked."

"I know right?"

They both shared laughs.

A feminine voice interrupted their merry werry conversation with a cough from behind. "Excuse me."

Henry didn't even bother to turn around to see who it was. "No need to be so polite, Ri."

The redhead scowled. "Don't call me that."

Sanjay nodded his head. "You shouldn't call her with that name if she doesn't like it, Henry."

Henry tch'd while folding his arms. "Stupid polite people."

Yuri growled a bit. "Excuse me, Henry. I need to get to the _other side_ and you're blocking the way." her voice was trying to keep her irritation in.

"Look who's PMSing." The brunette muttered to himself, obviously not wanting the two of them to hear. Yuri and Sanjay, however, heard it (quite clearly I might add) considering the loudness of Henry's voice.

The girl flushed. Sanjay gasped in mock terror. And for some reason there was a dramatic 'Dun Dun DUUUUN' piano song in the background.

Henry stood up and barked behind. "No need to get the whole Mozart get up going on!"

Silence, then a chuckle.

Out came a handsome man with unusual striking silver hair (even though he wasn't old...) from the backstages. He had a hand on his mouth, lightly laughing to himself.

God did they hate that face.

Henry twitched a brow._ Everybody, hide yo' kids, hide yo' wife, hide yo' husbands._

Yuri pursed her lips. _The demon has awakened._

Sanjay stared. _Oh look, a butterfly._

"Hello, my darling students!" Mikail sang in a [cough] disgusting [cough] sing song manner.

"Good afternoon, boss!" Sanjay replied in an equal form. The two came forward and hugged each other. With sparkles around them and shit.

"Nice weather today, isn't it?"

"Oh yes! I just watched an episodes of Toddlers and Tiaras yesterday!"

"Really? I love that show!"

"Really? Me too!"

Comments that sounded like the typical thirty nine year old mom would have (no offence to any thirty nine year old moms reading this) were being thrown around. Yuri and Henry had no choice but to watch on. Sparkles were literally giggling around Sanjay and Mikail. "I want to puke." Henry choked.

Mikail – the yandere conductor/instructor of the club. (a.k.a. Super Sadist Stomach Cell.)

Yuri – the silent and adorable. A cool nerd. Likes clothing and silently a gamer girl. Partner in crime used to be Lanna. Pianist. (a.k.a. The Bladder.)

Henry – (we already did him but we're doing him again anyways.) the Harry Potter freak and a Twilight hater of the group. Partner in crime is Sanjay. Plays the drums. (a.k.a. The Liver.)

Sanjay – Partner in crime is Henry. Secretly a fan of yaoi and a closet perv. Plays the violin/other instruments. (a.k.a. The Small Intestine.)

So now we know the main members of the Band club...

But there are still more mysteries to be uncovered...

Dun. Dun. DUUUUUN.

* * *

_I am officially awesome. Screw that, I am a fucking genius!_

"Sup Soseki. I found someone." Allen said, pointing to the girl beside him. (who was apparently experiecing a major amount of vein pops.)

The other man widened his eyes with surprise. "That fast? Wow, I didn't know our errand boy has improved on his time rates." he looked closer at the girl. "Have... We met before?"

The girl winched in surprise.

"Don't go flirtin' with her anytime yet, Soseki," Allen snickered. "Anyway, her name's Rachel McAfee. She can go doing the bass _and_ the vocals."

The black-haired girl protested. "Hey, I never said -"

"Right. She doesn't need you to introduce herself." Soseki said sternly. "If she wants to do bass, then bass. If both, then both. Though I think she'd do very well with vocals with her voice."

Allen flashed an obnoxious grin. Rachel jabbed her elbow onto his hip, resulting into him gawking.

_Son of a baseball bat! _Rio spat in her mind. The so called make up artist had forced her to wear some black wig and a pair of amber contact lenses. She looked liked a 'demon' version of herself, had she not worn spectacles and her trusty beanie.

"_Don't cover your whole hair," _Allen had said._ "It looks nicer that way."_

"_What...?"_

"_Just follow my orders woman. Oh, and everyone in the band will be calling you Rachel. Be sure to be present for Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays or face the wrath of my Blastoise's butt. Two pm to six pm at the stage. Sundays are held at the music room. Pronto."_

Goddamn how she wanted to punch his ass right now.

Rio bowed slightly. "Thank you, err – Soseki?"

The man nodded.

"I appreciate it, but I'd like to be the just the bass." she smiled.

**Fast forward to fifteen minutes later. **

"And this is Henry, Yuri, and Sanjay. They are the other band club members." Allen pointed to them with a folded newspaper. "And that's Mikail. You can call him Potato Bastard, Boss, or both."

Rio's brows rose in slight surprise. _Wait, Mr. Mikail?_

_Well, he **did** mention he was an opera singer or something in class before..._

"Yo!" A capped brunette waved at Rio. She hesitantly waved back.

_I don't which to act. Shy Girl Rio attitude or Famous Bitch Xiro? **(3)**_

A redhead and a [surprisesurprise] silver-haired guy, both looking like her age, came forward to her.

_Nah. Normal Neutral Rachel._

"Yo! Nice to meet you. What instruments do you guys play?" Rachel started a friendly conversation with a bright smile.

"Name's Henry. I play the drums." The brunette pointed a thumb to himself.

"... Yuri. Piano." the redhead said quietly.

"I'm Sanjay. I play the violin, cello or other instruments." the silver-haired dude who looked like an Arabian smiled politely.

_Henry. Yuri. Sanjay. _Rachel thought. _What unique names._

"I'm Rachel. I play bass." Rachel explained.

Henry gave a smirk. "Let's see how long you'll last then."

The black-haired girl frowned. "Excuse me?"

"Almost not after even two days of joining the band club, our new members always put their foot down."

Rachel raised a brow. "And why...?"

"Potato bastard."

She nodded. "I see." _Meh. I'm in the same classroom as him everyday! I know all his methods, tricks, bribery and how to blackmail him. I know how to last with that sadist._

The amber-eyed girl rubbed her chin. "And why have you guys stayed until now?"

Henry grinned. "We're special."

_Oh, I can see the three of them in superhero costumes, alright..._

Yuri suddenly spoke. "You... partner in crime..." she mumbled.

"Huh?"

Sanjay gave a small chuckle. "You and Yuri are now partners in crime. So please try hard to get along."

Henry tch'd. "Oh, and don't worry about the shy girl get up. She'll get used to you sooner or later."

The redhead struggled to refrain from scowling.

_What?_

The brunette boy gave a thumbs up. "By the way, you said you play the bass, right?" he asked. "That means you're the Gullet."

Rachel looked flabbergasted. "Huh -"

"Whoops, gotta run! We've gotta get to practise!" he turned around and bagan walking to some room to get his drums. Sanjay gave an awkward 'good luck being in here' smile and followed Henry. Yuri then looked at Rachel.

Stare.

Stare.

Stare.

Eye prick.

"... Let's be... Good friends..." she murmured.

Rachel sweatdropped in her head. "Okay." she smiled. A thousand thoughts were going through her brain as she spent her first hours in the band club.

_So what's a partner in crime supposed to do exactly?_

_I didn't know violins could be used for rock music._

_Sheesh, Henry really reminds me of a snobby fan or something..._

_Aww, Yuri's so cute._

_Am I supposed to hold it like this...?_

_I feel like writing to Neil now._

* * *

And so we're at a normal bedroom of your normal teenager.

"Neil, I'm bored."

"Don't care."

The blonde had been receiving the same setence for the past forty five minutes. He flipped through a page of his book.

"Neil, you're mean."

"Still don't care."

The ghost boy floated in the air and gave a scowl as he folded his arms. "Sheesh." he muttered.

_Leave me alone, you goddamn brat._

Neil looked at his diary. It had been a few hours now and still no message from Rio yet. Maybe she was busy or something.

Or she just didn't want to talk to him anymore.

"Neil, I'm bored." the peach-haired child yawned.

"Don't care." came the usual reply.

Suddenly Chase's face appeared right in front of Neil. He gave a high pitched yelp.

Chase giggled.

"What do you want?" Neil barked, angry at the kid for giving him a screamer like that.

"I'm bored. Read a sentence from that stupid book you're reading."

_And to think this brat is older than me._

Neil twitched a brow. "Urh... American soldiers were given a leaflet telling them what to expect and how to behave in Britain." _**(4)**_

Chase's eyes perked up. "Give me that." he took the book from Neil's hands, much to his irritation.

"World War Two?" the ghost child chided. "Why this?"

"Ever heard of History projects?" the blonde rolled his eyes. It had only been one day with this spirit and already he was pissed off with half of the time spent with his life.

"Youngsters are so complex nowadays..." Chase murmured.

Neil sweatdropped._ You with that body and sentence do not fit. At all._

"That reminds me, Chase – why are you in a kid's body? You didn't die like – as a child, did you?" the blonde asked curiously.

Chase was slightly taken aback, but then chuckled at Neil's round eyes.

"Apparently, when you die you're reborned with the body when you were happy most in your life."

Neil stared the peach-haired boy. "You must've had a very bad one, huh..." Neil murmured. Inside the stupid brat in front of him, could be living a wise eighty year old man who had lived many meaningful moments.

Chase gave a full-hearted laugh. "No kidding! I only got to lived until I was eighteen!"

_Okay then, nevermind._

Neil cocked his head. He wanted to ask, but wanted to refrain from asking such a rude thing.

Accident? Flight? Suicide? Murder? A million thoughts were running through his head right now.

The violet-eyed ghost boy sighed and layed on Neil's bed. "I can see it in your eyes. You're that curious, aren't you?"

_I feel like I'm a kid being lectured by a grandpa._

Chase gave a wistful smile. "It was in Malaya."

Neil was listening to every word, his history book forgotten.

"Not surprising that I died in a war, huh?" Chase said softly. He wanted to cry, but how could he? He was a ghost, something that didn't exist. He couldn't shed tears.

He wasn't human anymore.

"It was my unfortunate death."

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

**I will do the proper Author's Note tomorrow afternoon, because my mother is getting pissed. If you really want to know why I'm not going to update frequently, read my profile under the Average Life section.**

**Chiaos!**

**[EDIT 15 JAN 2013]**

**Okay, like I said, it's 'tomorrow afternoon' already. So let's begin with the actual A/N without anyone yelling into my ears telling me to go to bed.**

**[Footnotes]**

**_I wish Kyle was here right now. __(1)  
_**

**Kyle as in a random dude's name I made up.**

**Henry Harry Hart.**** __****(2)**

**I'm honestly not sure of his name. I thought it was Harry cause I checked Harvest Moon Wiki but some fanfictions refer to him as Henry. So I'm a bit confused. Oh and the Hart? His original Japanese name was Haruto. XP**

**_I don't which to act. Shy Girl Rio attitude or Famous Bitch Xiro? (3)_**

**Pssh'aw, how else could I put these into words?**

**"Urh... American soldiers were given a leaflet telling them what to expect and how to behave in Britain." _(4)_**

**I was doing research about History for a Hetalia fanfic, so I borrowed a book about it and saw this line. And here's another one that peeped my interest: "Most people in Britain had never met an American before. What they knew about America came from Hollywood films. US troops were told 'don't show off, don't eat too much, and don't criticize the King and Queen.' xD No offence stated to Americans or British people, by the way. I think British people are cool.\**

**[End of Footnotes]**

**I'M SORRY OKAY?!**

**-tries to duck all the tomatoes being thrown at her-**

**Alright, so I deserve a penalty for this one. Not updating for ten days plus? Surely all of them can't be because of schoolwork right?  
**

**Unfortunately, it is.**

**This is my sixth and final year of Primary school. The sixth year of a Primary school student (in Singapore, anyways...) is absolutely crucial. Teachers are going to stack up a lot of homework to train us for PSLE. (Google it...) That being said, that's why I can't write much other than weekends [for now]. So please don't shoot me with tomatoes and branches and kitties.**

**You know what?**

**I like kitties.**

**Just saying.**

**I reread this at school on my phone and I want to slap myself for how many mistakes and how lame this chapter is.**

**-slaps myself-**

**Oh and by the way, I won't do review replies anymore. I'm sorry. :(**

**Thank you for everyone who reviewed, favorited, followed and of course those who read along silently. Reading your reviews makes me feel so guilty.**

**-slaps myself-**


	4. War Life

**[Okay, fine, I'll do review replies. Only when I feel like it, though XP I guess I'll reply to the reviews I only want to reply? There are too many ^^"]**

**[People who find review replies boring, you may skip this stuff.]**

**_House of Fantasy_ [12/28/12] Chapter 2**

**I will also be honest, when I saw your review I squealed like a hobbit.**

**Oh, and don't worry, an overly eccentric review will always be welcomed. X) I'm glad I'm inspiring you to make your own story! Good luck, and I'll try to take your sleeping advice as well. ^^"**

**(anonymous) _wow_ [12/28/12] Chapter 2**

**You like swoozie too? Nice! And thanks, I'll try to update ASAP! :D**

**_oXo Akino oXo _[12/28/12] Chapter 2**

**I took that line from Elders React on the 2012 Election... ._.**

**_oXo Akino oXo _[1/14/13] Chapter 3**

**Mikail. His head. It looks like a potato. Thanks for your patience of waiting!**

**By the way, where did you get your profile picture? It always attracts my attention when I read your reviews xD**

**_ShadowBloodNinja_ [12/30/12] Chapter 2 & [1/15/13] Chapter 3**

**I like you. So much. So I'm going to continue the review replies like this.**

**I always refrain from replying through PM. I'm always so awkward with text and sometimes I don't know what to say next so I always leave the people who message me hanging. DX Thanks for your patience of waiting.**

**_asheya_ [12/31/12] Chapter 2**

**Thank you, your review is so awesome. ****

**It's nice to know RioXAllen fans are also reading this! ^^**

**Troll Goddess will troll us to the very end...**

**_arkee_ [1/3/13] Chapter 2**

**I slapped my hand to the table when I read your review. XD Yeah it's freaky, but freaky situations are always interesting! ^^ Mikhail's personality is disturbing? Of course, I can always imagine an inner sadist in him... Thanks for the review.**

**_shadowprincess100_ [1/13/13] Chapter 2**

**It makes me feel glad knowing this is the first ANB fanfic you've ever read. :D Alright, I'll try!  
**

**_TheOneMagic_ [1/14/13] Chapter 3**

**Not a soldier, but I guess it can be counted as close. XD**

**_Ocarina Arcanine_ [1/14/13] Chapter 3**

**It's good to see that you like the main character. In all the old deleted fanfics that I've ever created before, everyone was saying the personalities of the main characters I create suck xD Nice to see the band interests a lot of people. What's the meaning of afasfah? **

**(anonnoymous) girl in the coat [1/14/13] Chapter 3**

**Thanks... I have a really strong feeling this year will not be a good one. And crap, I didn't notice. Thanks for pointing that out! I'll try to fix his name in every chapter now. )X**

**[Thus marks the end of a very long review replies.]**

* * *

**Warning: This chapter contains some very inaccurate (codename: lazy) research on the History of Malaya. So if anyone is pissed off, please know that the internet isn't very useful at times so I couldn't get the sources I so desperately wanted. Feel free to correct and lecture me. Malaya and Singapore (my country) should be like – neighbour buddies, so I guess I don't know much about my neighbour huh. ._.**

* * *

**Chapter Four:**

**War Life**

**_13TH APRIL, TUESDAY_  
**

* * *

I'm gonna start from the very beginning, so get ready for a long story.

It was sometime long ago. Too long ago that I can't even remember. I was a little boy who was going to hit his birthday soon. An ordinary kampong _**(1) **_kid, along with the other children living in Malaya.

Something about me always stood out, though.

Yes, Neil. My face. My eyes. My hair. They were exotic. They weren't like the others, whose hair were simply black and eyes were ranged from grey to brown. I didn't know who my parents were. I was an _anak yatim_ – a child without parents. All I know is that I was always teased because of my peachy hair and violet eyes. I was different. Goddamnit.

No Neil, they didn't bully me. This isn't a movie where the main character gets stone thrown at 'em or some shit and a hero saves the day. All the people there were nice. All the children were friendly and no one minded my looks. It was hard to find actual cruel people where I lived. But time to time again, I would glance at all my play mates when we're eating or playing together and look at how their hair was different to mine. How their eyes were darker than the ones I have.

Don't look at me like that.

I was taken under the care of an elderly couple. They ran a religious school or an orphan's home or something, I can't really recall. I know there were a lot of other children my age there though. Seriously many. We were taught how to cook, clean, and were the big brothers and sisters of the younger kids. It was fun.

I didn't have a name when they found me. So the couple named me Diya, while sometimes the other kids would call me 'Cawan'. **[CHAH-waah-n]** It means 'teacup'.

I have no idea why they nicknamed me that either.

Then one day, we got another... one of us, but he wasn't like the other children. He was even peculiar than me, and that's a bump.

'I found him fainted at a tree; he has many injuries' - our guardian had said. This guy had hair that was even more weird and odd than mine – peach was extraordinary, but light blue was out of the world. And his eyes, too. They were _yellow_ – plus they were like a cat's. Those weren't the only things, though. He spoke English. He couldn't speak Malay like the rest of us, and the fact that he could speak actual _English_ made us wary of him.

At that time, Malaya was under British influence. As much as I can tell, the Malayans didn't like the British – God knows why, I was still a kid back then. _**(2)**_ But when I was a kid, I knew at least this: If you didn't like someone, that was because that someone did something to you. Maybe the British people did something to Malaya? I dunno. You modern people are so smart with History nowadays. Why don't you find out for me, hmm?

Anyway, back to story.

We were poor. So of course I didn't go to school, duh. How did I learn the English I'm using right now though?

Hehehe. That will come later.

Anyone who went to school could obviously speak English and his own language. This blue-haired guy couldn't speak Malay, like the rest of us could. Therefore, we had trouble communicating with him. And boy was he irritating. So all of us kids called him 'Layan', which means 'to handle someone in an irritated manner'. Whoever had to _layan_ him during play time was unlucky.

Very unlucky indeed.

Despite our differences, we did managed to get along with him. Sometimes. He was a glutton, and that annoyed me whenever he would stuff the food down I cooked without asking for permission. The closest thing our guardians had for us as a 'sweet desert' was tapioca cake. Made from tapioca flour. From actual picked tapioca. Which does not taste good. _**(3)**_

Blegh.

So we, Layan and I, became good friends. Maybe because of the similarities of our appearances. I dunno. A year passed and I was then ten years old, going to hit eleven soon.

This is the time where I had found the book.

There were those strangely destroyed buildings. How they got destroyed, I don't know. But I remember that those destroyed buildings would always make fun playgrounds for us kids. The black book was just battered up, collecting dust at the ground of a destroyed shophouse. Despite the damage of it's surroundings, the pages of the book were surprisingly clean. It was hard to find paper around those parts, and notebooks were, of course, too expensive for my family to buy. So I just took it.

I didn't know how to write, duh. So I drew. I drew pictures and I let the younger kids scribble on the black book occasionally as well. And of course, the same thing that happened to you also happened to me. Someone would write back, but of course I didn't understand any form of alphabet that the receiver would pen down. So I answered using drawings.

I spent a lot of time 'talking' to that person mysteriously writing on my book. Some days, I wouldn't get to reply back because I didn't have a pencil. We used inferior graphite – tree bark, whatever shit it was, to write back then. _**(4)**_

Layan and I were buying some stuff for our family to eat, I think. At this point, Layan had learnt some limited Malayan vocabulary, so he then could communicate and bargain with the food sellers on the streets. The way home was very simple and short winded. We had to pass this large field, and then the well where we did most of our wants and needs. Laundry and stuff like that.

Layan was the one to hear it first. Somebody was screaming for her life at the very depths of the well. I had shoved the things in my hands to Layan, tied a piece rope around my body – there's _always_ rope near a well – and tied it around a pole. I remember yelling at Layan to go get help, and then I quickly – but carefully - delved into the well. Wells are deep, I'll tell you that.

Good thing I could swim. You needed to have that ability, or either grab onto one of the edges of the well for safety. If you let go, you're dead.

I had felt the person's arm at the root of my feet, so I pulled her up. It was a girl, and even though she was still concious, her face looked like it wasn't going to last any much longer. So long story short, I saved her with the help of other people tugging the rope to pull us up. By that time, she had fainted. Layan and I took her back to our place – what else could we do? Our guardians decided to take care of her until she woke up, and after all, they were never the type of people to abandon others.

When she finally did wake up though, I was on watch. When we slept, we slept on the ground with 'tilams' as our 'beds'. _**(5) **_Her eyes weren't really on 'focused' yet. You know, still hazy and all that. I remembered touching her forehead to see if she was having a fever or not. Turns out she did have one.

The girl had red hair – so my guardians guessed she was British, just like Layan. Turns out she could also speak - very limited, mind you - Malay, but she and Layan could communicate together in their odd English language.

When she woke up? I can still remember her eyes. They were a light shade of brown. It matched her face...

Oh yes, where was I? Oh yep, she ended up having a fever so bad that she couldn't speak. So of course, as usual, my family ended up taking care of her. I would be watching and taking care of her condition most of the time.

One time, I was on watch as usual. Our guardians were out – so that left all us kids. I remember the girl was clutching onto a book. She had been clutching it the whole time since I had rescued her. It was a white notebook.

Because you know – of my curiousity, I wanted to take the book from her hands. Strangely enough, even when after she was soaked in the well, the book wasn't wet. At all.

I can't really remember what happened after that.

* * *

So after et tecetra events that happened that I supposedly forgot about, the girl became part of our big family, like Layan's case. Except for the fact that she could speak actual Malay. She told us to refer to her as 'Margaret'. But because of it being so hard to pronounce, I just called her Maret.

Layan and Maret could both speak English, unlike us. They talked to each other much more than to the rest. Needless to say, I was – jealous.

Don't give me that look.

There's this saying – two best friends, three's a crowd? Something along those lines. It applied to us, I guess. Even though we really did have a lot of fun together. You don't get that kind of childhood nowadays, yeah? Where I lived, there were a lot of slopes. We would take cardboard boxes or anything flat that wasn't in use, and ride it as we slided down. Fun as hell.

Hmm? Sledding? Yeah, something like that.

How nostalgic. We three really were together all the time. At some point, I may had developed a crush even. You can tell that was the happiest point of my life as I'm standing before you as a child right now.

Margaret requested me to teach her Malay, while in turn she would teach me English. It was just a scrap of English I managed to memorize, but still.

Margaret stayed with us for a long time. For a few years, until I was thirteen or somewhere around that age. Then they came. Formally dressed people who looked wealthy. With their blonde hair and blue or green eyes, of course they were British. They asked my guardians if they had seen this girl they showed in a poster. And guess what?

Yes, cheesy twist, cheesy twist. The girl in the poster looked extremely similar to Margaret, except she had short hair. I could tell my guardians were hesitant back then – but they said they didn't know anyone with a face like that and didn't know anyone with a name of 'Molly Margaret Testbony'.

Margaret – or Molly, anyways – was distraught. She hid in a room and I could sense the urgency in her actions. So I kept quiet too.

The butlers at the front door politely asked if they could search the house. My guardians warily let them in.

Yes, Neil, this an story with an obvious plot. Long story shot, blonde British people found Molly hiding and demanded she went home with them. But Molly wasn't stupid. Can't believe someone like her, who loves getting soaked and playing in mud, can be an actual runaway damsel in distress. She knew her place as a princess. I can still remember her words.

'I will only go with you on the following conditions: You give my family a proper place to stay, and I will only follow you back if you bring Layan and Diya along with me!" Badass words, if my memory does say so itself. However shocked all of us were, our guardians told us to go. We said goodbyes and all that, shed a few tears, then left along with Molly and her butlers. I had made sure to bring along the black notebook.

You know what pissed me off? Everything. The house was big. The Mistresses were bitchy. The servants were often abused. Old Chinese highnesses playing freakin' Mahjong. Everything there pissed me off. _**(6)**_

From what I could tell, the British were visiting the Peranakans or some shit. I dunno. They gave us new names too, and that really ticked me off. Layan was renamed 'Luke', and I was 'Chase'. Because we were boys, we did labor and physical work. Layan – or should I say Luke - and I were separated into two different districts. I was supposed to be carrying heavy load and stuff like that while Luke did wood chopping things. But because I was weak – don't call me a sissy – I was switched to the kitchen's district instead.

Yep, I did cooking. Because I loved it.

During this time, I was of course aware of how I needed to behave. I was given clothing and meals. I would see what they did with servants who disobeyed. They would get beatings so bad they had scars behind their backs. I almost never got to spend time with Luke and Molly too. If I had known it would have been like that, I would have just stayed home anyways. There was an official line between I, a servant, and she, a person of royal blood. We three were separated.

No more playing in the river. No more sliding down the slope together. No more having fun.

It's funny, you know. I always found it weird. I was a servant – male one who worked in the kitchen, mind you – but I found it odd that the other servants in my district always looked scrawnier and starved than I was. My clothes were cleaner, their clothes were dirtier. I was taught English, but they wouldn't get any lessons.

It occurred to me in my mind that I might be a 'special' servant. Molly might have commanded the butlers to give me extra things. I always thought about it.

At this point, I knew how to write. But I couldn't write often on my little black notebook. I had chores and stuff.

I stayed there for who-knows-how-long. They were 'good' years. I think the royal douchebags were wanting to get back to Britain as soon as possible, but for some reasons that I don't know about, we stayed at Malaya. I would get very little interaction with Luke, with me being in the kitchen and whatnot, but sometimes he would have to carry goods to my district and we would quietly share some words then. Those would be the only times we got to talk. I also noticed something – he was buff.

Seriously buff.

As for my family, I never did get word of them. How could I? I could only hope. Molly and I – oh no, we never talked. It would be either orders or 'Yes, Mistress'. I would serve food at the table, make eye contact, and walk off. Nothing else. No smiles, even. It was like our time back at home never happened.

I also did something in secret – I sold _kueh_ outside in the streets. I would have been dead if the people knew. But I needed money. I was frail – don't call me a sissy – and was often coughing. Medicine was expensive, and I'm sure it still is now. One day I hit the jackpot when some rich bastard bought everything I had. He left me with enough money to go to the doctor. I was so happy then.

But my happiness didn't really last. Such a shame, really. Turns out I had TB – tuberculosis. If you had been in my shoes, you would have been paling and crying your heart out. TB was incurable at the time._** (7)**_ It was the same as getting cancer. The doctor had told me to 'just hope for the best' and 'just take pills everyday'.

What was the use? I had wondered with frustration. What was the use of taking pills when I knew I was going to die? I asked the doctor how much time estimated I had left. A year, he said. Two if I was extremely lucky.

Knowing when you were going to die... I felt cold, numb, _dead_. Gloomy thoughts, though, they didn't even occur to me. Sure I was young and it was harsh, but... I couldn't even drop a tear. I felt as it already happened. As if I already didn't have any time left.

But I still had time, didn't I? I tried to convince myself that I had to be strong. I didn't have time for sadness.

What's that saying they use? 'With eighteen, life is only starting'. For me, it would all be over by then. Years are shorter than you think, Neil. The sixteen-year-old me back then had no time to waste.

Two years – if I was lucky.

What could I do in two years? I didn't want to waste them.

I became more polite and cheerful to the masters and mistresses. I payed more attention during English lessons. I stopped arguing with the other servants – I didn't want to leave on bad terms. Even the bitchy girls I was always indifferent with got to see a nice side of me. Yet I tried to stay the same as possible. I didn't tell anyone about my illness – it would be considered as a burden. I definitely didn't want Luke to know. I didn't want him sad. I didn't want to have him cry after me. I didn't even cry for myself, so why should he?

Even now, I can't bring myself to shed a tear.

* * *

I did things I was proud of and things I wasn't so proud of.

Most importantly, though, was that I didn't get to regret whatever I did. I wanted to be a good memory for others. I pushed myself away from the black notebook – I couldn't waste my time talking to someone who I couldn't see emotions. Every free break I got, I would help the mistresses and masters. Crack a joke with them. Smile. If I was in the streets, I would give kids my _kueh_. I said thank you more frequently. I had two years – I had to spend them wisely.

Show one last time what was important to me, a servant.

I showed Luke more gratitude. I would help him carry sacks, even if I was weak. Laugh with him more.

I also finally told Molly what was on my mind since age eleven. It might have been a childish crush. But I was still a child and I had might as well die as one. So it was all I had.

I told her somewhere where no one would have been listening. A servant and princess together? Blasphemy. Surprisingly, she reacted positively to my words. I knew, myself, that Molly already had a fiancee. She knew that she, herself, was going to get married to someone else. Yet she had held my hands, hugged me close. Said that she'd love me forever.

Strange. I remember those days when we three had spent together. When we could smile freely around each other with no one telling us off. It was only then we could be that free; even if it was just for a moment.

I had mumbled. I was hesitant. Guilt was filling my mind. I had only brushed it away, though. There had been nothing to change. I could have only regretted one single thing; that I never ever told her before. I had wasted so much time – too much time. Precious time. Every second that had ticked reminded me of how much closer I was to death, that the time I lost would never come back to me again.

She told me she loved me, Neil. She sounded so sure, so promising, that my heart broke. I could have almost heard the faint cracking.

For the first time in a long time, I cried. I cried so much.

I don't even know if what I did was a lie or not.

We did everything in secret. Every time she touched me, my skin would spark. Every time she kissed me, my body would shake. Regret and conscience would sting my mind. I felt guilt – terrible, terrible guilt. I stayed silent about my own fate. I didn't want to bother Molly with things that would only bother me. Death itself was scary enough.

I had silently savored the moments I spent with her. So that they could be buried with me. So that I could die happy.

As happy as death could be, anyways.

* * *

I could tell Luke was attracted to this girl in my district; Akari was her name. So I paired them up. At least he had something to be grateful to me then, heheh.

You said you have a History book, right Neil? Mind flipping over to the Malaya or Singapore pages? Oh yeah, the Japanese attacked us at... When was it? Eighth February, nineteen-forty-one...

Oh. I remember now.

Nobody expected it, to say the least. I still had the worries of my predicted death on my mind. The bombing was loud. So loud I thought my eardrums were going to burst. A bomb had burst right beside the house next to ours, killing all people inside. Screams were everywhere. People were bustling. People were moving. They didn't want to die, right? But I thought, 'It's pathetic to die of sickness in a war; might as well die from getting hit'. Heheh.

The whole Britain family in the Peranakan household fled back to Britain. They didn't include the servants in, of course. So I stayed behind. I was okay with that, since I was only a servant. However, in midst of all the pushing and escaping, someone was also left out. And it was Molly.

The royal douchebags accidentally left her behind. The princess, the one who should've escaped first. I felt angry. So I did something crazy – I assembled all the servants of all the districts together. I was the leader. I made Luke the co-leader though. Heheh.

Her highness Molly was rich – she still had a lot of money with her alone. That money was enough for all of us servants and her to take a ship to flee from Malaya to Singapore. I had told her to dress up in a servant's uniform to blend in and disguise.

Again, long story short, we reached Singapore via ship, and all of the servants were literally scattered. We four stuck together though – Me, Luke, Molly and of course Akari. We thought we were safe in small Singapore. We stayed in a small shophouse – and for once I had thought everything would have gone back to normal again. My illness would be a let down, but at least I got to spend the rest of my remaining year with the best friends.

At least, that's what I had thought.

It only took one month for the year nineteen-forty-two to come. I had lived up far until now – I knew this would be my last year alive and I knew I had been lucky. My coughing had grown more and more vigorous overtime.

And when I had thought everything was going just great, Singapore became invaded as well. It shouldn't be much of a surprise, now that I think about it. I mean, Malaya and Singapore are right next to each other!

This time, the bombing was worse. Deaths increased. Out of four of us, only Molly survived – she managed to return with her family, I think. I remember the sheer terror I had felt when I saw the planes and heard the screams. Everyone was feeling utter fear. All of us were running for our lives. It was hard for me because my coughing fit had picked a bad time to strike.

Akari died first. A child - a baby, even, was stuck under the rubble of a building. And to think destroyed buildings used to be my playground. You can guess what had happened next – Akari had intended to save the baby, but she hadn't been careful. The building had shattered underneath her weight, crushing her body and the baby together. A waste.

Needless to say, Luke was... distraught, for the lack of a better word. He screamed Akari's name in midst of all the bloodshed. He had lost his woman before I did. When I had looked at him at that state, I couldn't help but feel such pity. Such a gruesome face. He had never cried so openly before.

And so, I was second on our little death streak.

The three of us had left Akari's body. Any trace of it under the building would have been long gone, and even if her body was still in tact, it would have been impossible to carry it while seeking safety.

Luke, Molly and I got to seek shelter temporarily in a small building. We didn't have any food or water, nor did we have much energy left. We were traumatized by Akari's sudden death. The bombings died down, but Japanese soldiers were walking around, interrogating anyone who came in path. I was on the verge of suspense and dying. Smoke inhalation made me cough even more, worsening my current condition. I knew I was going to reach my limit soon.

I really thought I was going to die a pathetic death.

The first flames set upon the building was shocking. How the fuck did fire get in there, I still wonder to this very day. Of course, our first intention was to get out of the building at once before the fire began spreading. But as Luke and Molly neared the exit, I stayed.

I had already saw it. I saw Akari's spirit floating aimlessly in the midst of the fire that was growing rapidly. She wasn't the one that started the flames – but I could tell from her expression that she had wanted to tell me something. Something desperately urgent.

My death was coming.

I didn't try to escape. Even as Luke and Molly turned back and yelled at me to get out, I couldn't even hear their words. Why bother trying to escape when I knew I was going to die anyway? As soon as the doctor had told me my fate two years ago, my destiny had already been sealed.

The building was crashing. I could feel the hot, burning flames blocking out my sense of breathing. It was scary. But I didn't bother to fight.

I said my last words to them. How they were the closest people to me. How they were there for me when other people wasn't. How I was sorry I wasn't a good friend. How they had changed my life.

Their eyes; they were shocked. I can still remember smiling in front of them.

I told them how I had silently savored the moments I had spent with them. So that they could be buried with me. So that I could die happy.

As happy as death could be, anyways.

* * *

Luke died shortly after I did.

They say you see your whole life as a film when you die.

That's a lie. I didn't see anything. It came fast, a urge of quick pain, then nothing. And then, everything was just black. Just like that, my life was wiped off.

It was nice to know I died just like those dramatic heroes in the movies.

Hmm? What was that?

Well... People die. That's how the world works. Everyday you can see it as soon as you read the headlines of the newspaper. Or maybe on TV. You feel bad, don't you? As soon as you see it, you feel sympathy. But deep inside, aren't you glad it ain't you? Can you really imagine you being the guy dying from a coughing fit in a fire? No, you can't. Because, no matter how horrible it is, you still can't help but think, deep, deep down, that you're glad it's not your problem. And though it seems cruel to be so cold about it, it's natural. It's how humans protect themselves from feeling too much emotional pain. You cry for things you see in movies. But yet; could you ever imagine it happening to yourself?

Of course not.

I couldn't do so, either, Neil.

The depression, the sadness, the anger. All of it.

Worst of all, I couldn't even cry. My corpse was burning right in front of me. Even at my own death, I couldn't shed a single tear.

Because I didn't want to; if I cried, I'm sure they would have cried as well. I'm just too blind to see it. We, as humans, can't do anything about fate and death.

Even I, who always thought I'd be able to move mountains for the people I cared about, couldn't do anything.

I have long since realized what a pathetic being I am.

After all, I am only 'Chase'.

After all, I was stupid to fall in love with Molly.

And, after all, I am helpless.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

**[Footnotes]**

_**An ordinary kampong ****(1) **kid, along with the other children living in Malaya._

**Kampong is like a Malay village. I wished I had lived in one. Too bad I was born in the twenties.**

_**As much as I can tell, the Malayans didn't like the British – God knows why, I was still a kid back then. (2)**_

**Look, I'm going to _assume_ that people back then didn't like the British... I mean... I read it in my text book... ._.**

_**The closest thing our guardians had for us as a 'sweet desert' was tapioca cake. Made from tapioca flour. From actual picked tapioca. Which does not taste good. (3)**_

**Two years ago when I was ten, my school held this event on how people in the past always ate nothing but tapioca. The kueh I made from tapioca flour tasted alright, but to eat tapioca raw was horrible T_T**

_**We used inferior graphite – tree bark, whatever shit it was, to write back then. (4)**_

**Copied this from Wikipedia when I was researching the History of Malaya.**

_**When we slept, we slept on the ground with 'tilams' as our 'beds'. ****(5)**_

******For all the anime fans/Japan********ese people out there, 'tilams' are like futon. Malay version xD**

_**Old Chinese highnesses playing freakin' Mahjong. Everything there pissed me off. (6)**_

**I watch The Little Nyonya (a Singa****porean film about WWII) and alot of the old mistresses loved to play Mahjong, so...**

_**TB was incurable at the time. (7)**_

**Again, taken from The Little Nyoya. A character had TB and someone said that it was incurable.**

**[End of Footnotes]**

* * *

**This. Is. Depressing.**

**I don't know if this goes up the emo or boring factor more. It looks like I just typed everything without thinking. **

**Since I had finished all my homework (YATTA! :D) and it would be a Sunday, I stayed up the whole night doing this.**

**Needless to say, it was worth it.**

**Chase's backstory is greatly inspired by the songs _Just A Dream_ (Sam Tsui and Christina cover) and _If I Die Young_ (Sam Tsui cover - damn, his voice is amazing!) Check them out, they're nice covers. When I listen to _If I Die Young,_ I can literally imagine Chase's life in an AMV.**

**You know what?**

**I'm going to make one right now.**

**I spent a lot of time thinking how the heck I was supposed to write this chapter down from Chase's point of view. In the end, I guess it looks... okaish? :/**

**You guys can call this a bonus, filler, anything you want. Since it doesn't really add up to the actual and main story, does it? Writing chapter six of Gifts seemed like a chore. I really wanted to finish this chapter as soon as I could.**

**Is this chapter depressing? Feel free to leave your opinion in a review. Because I have a very depressing plot twist at the final chapter of this story. =A=**

**Strikey, you don't need to think that far yet. -slaps myself-**

**Have you guys read this HM fanfic titled 'It's Love, Stupid'? It's a really great story. Go check it out if you haven't! I, for some stupid reason, feel this strange urge to rival with the author. DX How weird for a twelve year old girl to match up against the writing standard's of a twenty-three year old adult woman...**

**Oh, I can just picture it... xD**

**Thank you for reviewing, favoriting, following or just reading along silently!**

**-waves- TALLYHO!**


	5. Homie Life

**[Review Replies] (Yeah, they're short this time... DON'T JUDGE.)**

**ShadowBloodNinja: I love your rambles. They're so entertaining. XD**

**Guest (anonymous) : Yin Yang diaries? Never heard of it. ._.**

**oXo Akino oXo : No, I don't know his name. XD He's handsome though. I shall stalk your profile later to know his name... And yeah, it's kinda typical for other Asians to not know about 'tilams'.**

**Manga lover (anonymous) : D'aww, thankies. :3 It's nice to know someone the same age as me! :D Where do you live?**

**[End of Review replies]**

* * *

**Before we do anything else, let's peek into Neil's reactions for a little bit, shall we...**

"Wow, Chase." Neil commented. "I never knew you could be so -"

"Independant, awesome, inspiring?" the ghost boy struck a pose.

"- Deep."

"That works too."

**And so it continues...**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

**Homie Life**

_**16TH APRIL, FRIDAY**_

* * *

Did it happen?

Did it seriously happen?

Holy shit.

It did happen.

* * *

"Mr. Mikhail didn't come? He's _absent_?" Denny gasped.

Yuri's eyes drifted to the attendance list. "Yes. He's absent because of... Food poisoning?" she narrowed her eyes to make sure. "Ah, yes. He had recently eaten a fish that's poisonous – though it wasn't that deadly," the red head read aloud.

Denny puched his fist into the air, letting out a battle cry. What happiness he felt.

Yuri raised a brow. "With that being said, I'm going to assume that you were the one who placed the fish on his plate." she said grimly.

Denny merely grinned. "Well of course it was me. Who else would've been brave enough to put it there?"

Rio, even though she knew it was rude, was unconsiously eavesdropping on the two's conversation. Denny was lucky that their class rep wasn't that strict. Food poisoning some teacher was serious business. But Yuri was merciful enough to let Denny get away unsuspended.

Oh, and did said narrator mentioned that Yuri had already found out about Rio's secret?

The History test results had come and went yesterday; Rio had failed, as usual. Normally if someone had a score lower than 25, they would have to stay back after school to do... Work. But goody-goody for her, Mr. Mikhail had recently been food-poisoned by Denny. Which means she didn't have to stay back.

Which was good.

"So who's our relief teacher?" Dirk questioned the class rep.

"... I'm not sure. He'll be coming soon." Yuri said, looking at the clock.

Everyone settled down. Rio had the freedom to flip her manga pages without letting it being covered by a textbook or something. She looked at the clock. Seven forty-five. This relief teacher was sure carefree at his or her time.

"Ah, Rio. I almost forgot." Yuri said, gesturing the blonde to come over to her table. Rio hesitantly stood up, immediately having thirty-nine pairs of eyes looking at her.

_Goddamit Yuri, did you have to call me in the middle of class?_

The red head passed the nerd a paper. "... Here. It's from T.D.S.B."

T.D.S.B. Standing for The Digestive System Band. Just sayin'.

Rio gave a small nod as thanks and went back to her seat. Felicity looked curiously at the paper in her hands that Yuri had distributed. She tapped the nerd's shoulder, gaining a small surprised jump as she did so.

"Hey, Rio. What is that?" The pretty ginger asked.

Rio tensed up before calming down. She sighed. Felicity was a kind one, and didn't mind talking to a slob like her. "... Nothing." she almost silently replied.

It was a good thing the relief teacher walked into the class at that moment, because Rio didn't feel like she was in the mood to be bombarded with questions.

It was a male teacher. God, didn't they ever get female teachers nowadays? He was old as well – his hair was white with flecks of grey here and there, and wrinkles were what covered most of his face. His eyes were barely open – it looked as if the old man was walking with his eyes closed.

_Maybe he's Asian_. Rio thought.

"Good morning, class," the old teacher spoke with a monotone voice. "Sorry for me being late. You may all call me Mr. Toby."

The class rose and greeted the old man. As they sat down, Rio noticed that Mr. Toby was staring at her, almost smiling. She focused her eyes on the well of her desk instead. "Let's see... Mikhail didn't assign me to tell you students to do any work... Or did I just forgot to bring the papers?" the old teacher muttered to himself as he sat down.

Everyone was praying for this pops to announce 'free time' to them.

"Excuse me," Yuri said, raising her hand. "I believe Mr. Mikhail had mentioned yesterday that he intended to go through the History test papers and the Maths test papers."

_Goddamit, Yuri._

Threre was a slight pause from Mr. Toby. Yuri opened her mouth to speak again, thinking that the wrinkled teacher didn't hear her words.

"... You speak excellent English," Mr. Toby commented unexpectedly, much to the class rep's surprise. "What is your name, child?"

_Damn. Old man speaks like Dumbledore._ Rio thought.

"My name?" said redhead repeated. "Yuri. Yuri Evans."

"Ah. I see." Mr. Toby smiled contentedly. He pointed. "And you?"

Dirk's eyebrows rose. "Oh, who, me? Name's Dirk."

"And you?" he pointed again.

"Felicity Sverus, sir." the ginger replied.

"What about you?"

She looked up from the volume of her manga book. The old man's thumb was pointing at her. Clearly he was expecting an answer. Rio always found class introductions boring, this one being no different.

Mr. Toby's barely-opened eyes seemed to burn into those thick glasses of hers.

"..."

"What is your name, dear." the teacher repeated gently.

"... Rio."

'She spoke'. That must have been what was on everyone's mind at that moment. The nerd actually spoke.

Mr. Toby questioned a few more students on their names before resting his lips to a stop. "Alright. You young ones all seem to have very unique names." he commented, smiling slightly. "Let's start our lesson then. Would you like me to do History or Maths first?"

Holy crap. Did they get to choose which subjects was to be taught first? Was this old man for real?

"You might as well don't teach at all, right?" Denny muttered almost silently. Unfortunately for him though, Mr. Toby had heard him. He chuckled slightly.

Rio could see Denny sweatdropping. She could tell everyone was wondering why the heck this teacher was laughing. Usually if that taboo sentence was said in Mr. Mikhail's class, he'd whoop your ass, brah. But it seems that in the case of Mr. Toby's, it was different.

"I feel sorry for kids at this generation," The old teacher said, smiling sadly. "Back in my days, people your age would be happy to go to school. Looking at your bored faces now, it seems as though the times have changed."

Everyone was silent. After all, anybody who was human knew when to shut up when old people was giving out gold advice. Mr. Toby's eyelids parted for a moment, letting the class see the dim shade of green of his pupils. His eyes bored into Denny's.

"Pardon me if I'm rambling. I can't help it; I'm old, after all," he remarked. "It even goes with entertainment. Phones, pads, whatever crap they're making nowadays. Next thing you know, they'll be creating Iphones with toilets."

Rio felt a strong likeness to the teacher as soon as he had said the word 'crap'.

"Wanna hear a story?" Mr. Toby opened his eyes slightly wider. "There was once this boy who was blind. He couldn't see. His parents had died at a young age, and he had many siblings to take care of. He had the responsibility of the school fees. The boy knew that the money saved by his parents wouldn't last long. All that was left of his parents was his father's fishing rod, but the boy didn't know how to fish, or where to go, since he was blind."

Everybody's attention was diverted at Mr. Toby this point.

"One day the boy's family all ran out of money. It didn't take long for them to starve, and the youngest of the brothers and sisters died. There was this man – a kind soul, he was, who appeared at the boy's doorstep one day, selling food. He felt pity for the family, a family being taken care of by the only guardian, who was indeed blind. He gave the family a big fish."

Mr. Toby paused after that. Dirk's voice piped up in impatience. "And then?"

"'And then'? What did you think happened, idiot?" the wrinkled old man chuckled. "That night was truly a blessed night. The family ate the fish, but that wasn't enough. The next day the poor boy seeked the man who gave his family food. He refused to hand the boy another fish – the boy begged, cried, was at my knees, and did all sorts of things. At last the man resorted to this – using the fishing rod left from the boy's father, the man taught the boy how to fish. The blind boy fished everyday, and his family never ran out of food and they never starved ever again. The end."

Everyone's face was that of a pokerface. Mr. Toby gave another laugh.

"There's a reason why this old teacher told you this story, y'know," the narrowed-eyed man said. "Can you guess what that is?"

Nobody had an answer. Mr. Toby almost smirked. "'If you give a man a fish, he'll have food for a day; if you teach a man to fish, he'll have food for a lifetime." _**(1)**_ he tilted his head slightly.

"To the student who wondered why teaching is so important to the human life -" Mr. Toby turned to Denny once more, giving a small smile. "I think I've said enough to you."

That sentence alone seemed to shut Denny up.

Gretel asked a question. "Where did you hear that story from? Is it a true story?"

Mr. Toby's eyes narrowed back into those slits. But his smile remained. "Well, of course it's a true story. It is from my childhood after all."

Wait, wait, wait.

_Pause, rewind, play._

Mr. Toby was blind?

"I have eyesight now, of course." the teacher laughed at our shockness. "I went through surgery a long time ago. Hardships are sometimes healthy for the human mind – try to be like the turtle. At ease with your own shell. Alright, shall we start our lesson then?" he said.

Felicity's hand shot up. "Mr. Toby, how old are you?"

Everyone's thoughts immediately pondered on that question as well. We all looked at the teacher, expecting an answer. His eyes that were like slits softened.

"My age? Must you ask about my age?" he said in amusement. "Don't ask me about things like that. I am the same as all of you. Age or skill, whatever – it doesn't make a difference. Maybe levels of the people who mature differ, but regardless we are all the same. See that tree over there?" Mr. Toby pointed at the window. Rio looked outside. A strong, sturdy tree was standing. A cat was sleeping on the outer roots of the tree.

"That cat's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." _**(2)**_ Mr. Toby spoke. "Look at amazing people in your life. Anne Frank from your History textbook. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. They weren't amazing people, were they? Bill and Steve were undergraduates, yet how come they could change the world into what it is today? That proves something, I'll tell you that – skill doesn't matter. Being an old wise chatterbox doesn't change anything."

Mr. Toby's eyes danced as he laughed. "Some of you look a little puzzled. What I'm trying to say is," he explained, "Learning doesn't stop. Not once in your life, does learning stop. You and I, we are like candles. We start off as a tiny flame, then our knowledge gets bigger and bigger, before it shrinks and shrinks once more as our memory fades away. And then the flame of the candle finally disappears. Just like we will someday disappear as well."

The relief teacher looked at his class. "I'm old. Even now... I'm still learning, still burning."

Silence flooded the class.

Rio had a feeling that this teacher would be more entertaining than those textbooks resting underneath her desk.

* * *

Okay. School was over.

Time to chat with Neil.

* * *

Oh! But before that, she had to check the letter Yuri had given to her from the Band Club.

You're probably wondering where the heck Rio is right now, am I right?

Well, she was at the school's cafeteria. With the black notebook laid right in front of her right now. And the letter in her hands. She silently read it.

**Dear Peeps,**

**Because Mikhail's warded in the friggin' hospital for swallowing a squirrel with rabies or some shit, I'm the one who's going to be your daddy for today. Weee.**

**That being said, the band's going to be held at my place because I'm too sexy to get my ass of my bed and I'm probably playing Conker's Bad Fur Day as you're reading this now. The band instruments are already at my house, so no need to worry.**

**Oh, by the way, Soseki the perv/songwriter is here too.**

**And I've also managed to contact the other band member (vocalist) too. Weee.**

**No, I'm not drunk. Can't you see I'm typing properly?**

**Anyway, I have a PS3, Nintendo 64 and a Wii all powered up, so you homies better come here pronto or you'll be forced to admit that I am the definition of awesome, sexiness and fangirls.**

**Rachel, I want you to get here quicker than the other peeps because I have something I need to show you.**

**Get those inappropriate mental images out of your mind right now, you little bitch.**

**OK, maybe I am a little drunk...**

**ANYWAYS!**

**See yah homies in mai house later~**

**Allen**

Rio felt an empty silence fill her head.

Da fuq did she just read?

* * *

Allen jammed the button of his Nintendo 64 controller. "SCREW YOU BIATCH!" he shrieked. In return, the red head received a smirk from the other player.

What the hell was Allen doing right now, you ask? Gaming, if that wasn't obvious. Hangin' out with his homie Rod. In his awesome room, of course.

Allen accidentally bit his tongue. "Fuck!" he swore in pain, causing him to screw up. Rod grinned, taking the opportunity to slice the character's of Allen's head off. Allen felt anger bubbling up as he saw the CGI of blood being animated, with the pain of the bit tongue still intact.

"OW! SHIT! FUCK YOU!" The red head barked at Rod's face. The ginger released the controller of the 64, falling back on Allen's bed, laughing hysterically. He shed a tear. "Wow, Allen. The last time I saw you... Well, you were cuter." he giggled in a girly way.

"Dude." Allen muttered. "Stay away from me."

"Precisely!"

Soseki, who was disgustedly lying on Allen's bed, shook his head. "You guys are so childish."

"Excuse me, I'm still a teenager!" Rod protested.

"Yeah, suuuuuure you are."

Rod; the childhood friend of Allen's. He hadn't been lying actually. He really was still a teen – a teen growing to be an adult. Four years younger than douchebag Allen. Rod had lways had been pure, and probably always would be. Never swore in his life, and probably never will. Let's just hope nothing stains the innocence of the babyish ginger. Forever.

Seriously though. If Rod was a girl, there would probably be a decent number of fangirls shipping... Err... FemaleRodXAllen. Just sayin'. Even the narrator is a fangirl, y'know.

A knock was heard outside. Allen's ears perked up. "She's here!" the red head immediately dropped the console and dashed out of his room, walking down the stairs. Rod rolled his eyes. "Little sister complex." he muttered under his breath. Soseki silently agreed with him.

"YURI!" Allen shouted lovingly. The door opened to reveal his oh-so-precious little sister staring down at him with disguised fear in her eyes, and also with company on her left side.

"What are you doing here for?" Allen demanded upon seeing Henry, folding his arms and arching his back.

"I think you've forgotten that I'm part of the band as well." the brunette muttered, entering as soon as Yuri did. He removed his shoes and stepped inside the house. "So where's the new member?"

"Yuri~" Allen said in a sick big-brother way, totally ignoring Henry. "How was the new relief teacher?"

The smaller sister flinched in discomfort. "... Alright," she decided to say. Henry rolled his eyes, sensing the tension. He snatched Yuri's hand and ran up the stairs, sticking his middle finger to Allen and pulling out his tongue as he did so. "C'mon, Ri! Show me that Harry Potter doujin collection you said you have in your closet!"

Allen was, for the lack of a better word, motrified. He was aghast at the sight of another guy holding the hand of his precious little sister.

"You unhand her right now!" The redhead barked, his over-protective-nii-chan side kicking in.

Henry smirked. Rod and Soseki who were in Allen's room were both rolling their eyes at the sounds being made. As Henry reached the top of the staircase, he kneeled down in front of Yuri unexpectedly, still holding her hand. With an arrogant smirk, he 'romantically' read out a poem.

* * *

"_Charmanders are red,_

_Squirtles are blue._

_If Yuri was a Pokemon,_

_I'd choose you~!"_

* * *

Yuri's face was as red as a roman candle.

Words could not express the anger of big-brother-Allen right now.

* * *

This was the right place, right?

Yup, it was the right place.

* * *

Rio looked at the house. It was white, and large. She wondered how rich of an asshole Allen was. Of course, Rio had changed into her 'Rachel' clothes. Black wig, cool hoodie, stylish clothes. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door.

But guess what? She was interrupted.

Someone that was literally right next to her was knocking on the door as well. Like, at the same time. Ooh, how freaky was that.

The dude looked familiar for some reason. He had shaggy blonde hair, and unusual red eyes. His eyes was surprised for a moment, before the handsome face of his turned into an ugly scowl.

_Is he here to visit Allen too? _Rio thought, furrowing her eyebrows at the teen just to challenge him. _Maybe he's the new vocalist._

Blonde Shaggy Scooby Doo continued scowling before pulling the doorknob and entering the house. Rio raised a brow. How rude for that person to be just barging in. Rio sighed, keeping her manners. She lightly knocked on the door, removed her shoes and entered.

What she was greeted with was Allen screaming, Henry hitting and Yuri blushing. And there were these two people – a ginger and one looked like a perv – who she had never seen before. Sanjay wasn't there, so perhaps he hadn't arrived yet.

"Holy... French toast..." Rio swore. Allen was being literally yandere like, screaming "DON'T FUCKING TOUCH HER HAND YOU SON OF A BEETCH" at Henry. Something along those lines.

Allen raced up the stairs. His house was big, Rio could see. He snatched Yuri's hands away from Henry's, and kicked the poor brunette in the balls. "Listen here, you," Rio could make out the words he whispered. "If you dare touch Ri _ever again_, be prepared to get your dick to be fucking _torn out_ by me and be fucking _forcefed_ to eat it. _You got that_?" Allen spat at Henry.

The brunette paused slightly. Then he giggled. Then he laughed. Then he flicked Allen's forhead before running off.

"THIS IS MY HOUSE, YOU SON OF A BETCH, DON'T YOU DARE RUN AWAY!" The red head shrieked.

Henry let out laughs as he ran. "Don't insult my mom and the dog race, you silly bastard~!" he cooed.

Nobody seemed to notice the gaping Rio and the other man standing at the doorstep.

"Hey, uhh, Al," The ginger haired man pointed, diverting the crazy redhead's attention away from Henry. "I think you've got new guests."

Allen turned around. Once he met in contact with Rio's eyes, he instantly beamed a smile. "Ah, Rachel! What good it is to see you!"

Yuri, at this point, had fled to her room.

"Oh, and new kid! Nice to meet you! Your name is...?"

The blonde guy who looked as if he had anger issues snorted. "The hell was with that? Name's Neil."

Rio tensed.

"Ah, yes, Neil, welcome to the gang! Mr. Mikhail didn't come today, as you might have known. You are the anus, and you unfortunately have no partner-in-crime. Boo hoo for you."

Neil's face was bewildered, his face looking just as shocked as Rio had been when Henry had told her about the digestive system names of the band.

Could it be?

"Uhh... Rachel, you okay?"

Was the voice this asshole had the same voice that always talked to her?

Was he really Neil?

"Urhh..." the blonde said awkwardly. "Are you okay?"

_Are you okay?_

Son of a baseball bat.

It really was him.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

**[Footnotes]**

"_**'If you give a man a fish, he'll have food for a day; if you teach a man to fish, he'll have food for a lifetime." (1)**_

**A Chinese teacher in my school said this; I personally find it inspiring.**

"_**That cat's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." (2)**_

**Original quote: 'Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.' I forgot who the creator of the quote was, though. Sorry. :/**

**[End of Footnotes]**

**YAY I GOT A THIRTY NUMBER OF REVIEWS! XO**

**Congrats to oXo Akino oXo for being the thirtieth reviewer. I'll write a oneshot for you soon. ;D**

**There are so many things I'm angry with at this chapter.**

**The fact that it's twelve p.m. And I stayed up the whole night during this and my mom doesn't let me drink coffee (I'm too young, she says) and also the fact that I'm HALLUCINATING cats appearing out of nowhere in the kitchen, I'm a bit freaked out.**

**If you're wondering about the writing style of this chapter, don't worry, I just wanted to experiment a different style. Next chappie and it'll be the same.**

**Once I get like – oh I don't know, three hours of sleep, I'll return to re-read this chapter and edit it properly. Yup.**

**Mr. Toby's situation being Chase's depressing story all over again. (In my perspective)**

**Oh, yes, I do think of Allen and Yuri as a sibling pair. They look the same. They're cute, sue me. I can honestly imagine Allen being an over-protective nii chan and stuff.**

**It's Belarus and Russia all over again... (-shot for making a Hetalia joke -)**

**I am fond of Henry/HarryXYuri. She's just so... QJDNAFCBNBSAAJ. SO CUTE. THOSE EYES. THEY PULL ME TOWARDS HER MORE THAN IROHA DOES.**

**I had no idea what use as a title name for this chapter...**

**Eheheh, maybe I can sneak drinking some iced coffee when my mother takes her noon nap...**

**See you in the next update! :)**

**- Strikey Chan**


	6. Creepypasta Life

**[No Review replies for now~ Sorry~]**

* * *

**Bonus Chapter:**

**Creepypasta Life**

* * *

"Yuri, pass the popcorn."

The girl quietly passed the plate to the blonde.

"Yuri, pass me a pillow."

The girl quietly passed the thing to her brother.

Four people having a sleepover – with she being the only girl in. Henry, Yuri, Sanjay – twelve years old. Allen, being the oldest fifteen year old in the room, was playing video games with the two boys because he was bored. Yuri was at the corner of the room, their sleeping bags on her feet. She sighed.

What a great sleepover this was.

Her mother had given her permission to let Henry and Sanjay sleep over – she trusted them, after all, provided that Yuri slept on her bed and the two boys slept on the floor.

"I'm – going to sleep." the redhead said almost silently, climbing onto her bed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Allen dismissed with a mere wave.

Yuri almost flinched – she was growing more and more used to his cold remarks each and every day. He was so mean. She didn't like her step-brother. At all.

"Oi, Yuri! You're going to sleep already?" Henry looked up from the console just as she was about to pull the covers.

_Well, duh. What time do you think it is? _She thought.

Oh yes. Henry. He was mean, but he wasn't as mean to Yuri as Allen was. Sanjay wasn't mean at all, and at some points similar to her. The three boys looked at the girl.

"Okay then. If Yuri says it's time to sleep, then it's time to sleep." Sanjay said, releasing his game console and standing up. "This isn't our house, after all."

Yuri felt an edge of a smile on her lips. That feeling, though, was briskly destroyed by Allen's fat mouth.

"Say whaaaat? Yuri, you're so stupid, always have to be ruining everything." he scowled. "If that was the case, it would have been better if you hadn't invited them at all, right? Dumbass."

_Wow. You really like the sound of how you talk. I bet you like the sound of how you fart, too._

_This_ time she flinched. But she knew better than to argue with her 'awesomely handsome big brother'. She needed to come up with a suggestion, quick.

"How about... we tell each other... Scary stories...?"

Allen scoffed. "Scary stories? That's lame as hell -"

"Yeah! Yeah! We'll do creepypastas!" Henry exclaimed.

No one could object the blonde _**(1) **_when he decided to do something. His face beamed in triumph. "Okay then, I'll go first!"

* * *

**The Girl From Hell**

**Original: A Long Detour by Unknown**

The hitchhiker named Harry picked up on that July afternoon was one of the stranger people he had met. She had thanked Harry and told him that she was able to grant him a wish.

Harry was quite sceptical, but he played along anyways.

Now Harry, the good man that he was, was always of the opinion that you should do a good deed for the person's own sake, and not for material reward. He lightly waved away the images of wealth or power that the girl suggested.

"I wish for you to safely get to the place where you were headed, young lady."

The girl's face paled. She instantly vanished with an ear-piercing scream.

* * *

Allen's face reeled.

"What... the hell? That wasn't scary at all!"

"I don't understand it, to be honest," Sanjay admitted as well.

Yuri spoke up. "If you didn't understand it, I think the girl was actually headed to Hell. Thus the title."

Henry beamed. "At least _someone_ gets it."

Allen folded his arms. "Still, don't you think it's a bit too short? And confusing, at that!"

The blonde boy looked at the teen. "Why don't _you_ tell a short creepypasta that's hair-raisin', eh?" he demanded.

The redhead smirked. "But of course, my dear Henry, of course..."

* * *

**Won't You Rock Me To Sleep?  
**

**Original: Baby Doll by Unknown**

In somewhere around the world, a toy company began selling "realistic" baby dolls to expectant mothers to prepare them for the actual baby.

But apparently after the mother had her human child the toy baby's cries got much, much louder. Eventually the toy company advertised those mothers to 'rock them to sleep' so that the toy babies be quiet. But on many occasions, it didn't work, and it would take harder thrashings for the toy baby to shut up.

Eventually when it started crying, the mother would have to eventually beat it, and the beatings and thrashings would have to get harder and harder.

The only thing that seemed to shut the baby doll up permanently was to bash its head against a wall to destroy whatever mechanism that triggered the crying inside. On more than one occasion though, neighbors had often called the authorities to report child abuse.

Many times, when the police arrived they would find bloody remains of infants smeared across the walls and on the floor. In nearly all the cases the mother couldn't even understand why the police were even there.

"I just wanted to get rid of the stupid doll." she would say, as she rocked a baby-shaped bundle in her arms.

* * *

Silence filled the room.

"... That's so sick." Sanjay whispered.

Henry was frustrated that Allen had the better ability to tell a scarier 'short' creepypasta than he had. "I don't understand!" he exclaimed. "Why don't you explain it to me, hmm?"

Allen was about to open his arrogant mouth, but his younger sister beat him to it. "It's not that scary, but it's disturbing," she commented. "The doll isn't the one that requires heavier beatings to be quiet – it's only after the mother has her child that the problems start, and the beatings get more severe; it's not the doll she's trying to shut up – but the actual infant. She thinks that it is broken and not reacting to how it was advertised, when in reality, it's not the doll that is the one creating all the noise. Apparently it was happening in more than one case, because they are so confused about which was the real child."

Sanjay looked surprised. "Wow, Yuri. You pick up so fast."

"Hmph. Yeah, something like that." Allen said.

Henry narrowed his eyes. "Now that Yuri had explained it..." he paused. "How in the world do the mothers mistake their babies for the toy?"

Yuri shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe some mechanism inside the baby triggered the mother's mentality. Quite disturbing, if I do say so myself."

Sanjay laughed. "Disturbing? I'll let you guys rest with a much more lighter pasta, then." he smiled, and quickly wrote some sentences down with lightning speed on a piece of paper he had in his pocket, and gave it to Henry. "Here. Read."

* * *

**A Message For You**

**Original: The Message by Unknown**

Don't dismiss this outright as the work of some raving lunatic. There's some sense to this story, if you'll just hear me out…

Look, we all wonder if time travel is possible, right? Well, let me tell you something… it is. I'm from the future, actually. I know you probably don't believe that, but seriously, I'm from the future. It's a really great thing; getting to see the past, watching events unfold… stuff like that. We know more now than we ever would.

Behind all the fun, though, there's a more serious aspect. We aren't supposed to go in our own lifetime, and we are NEVER allowed to contact our past selves. Let me tell you, I'm breaking that rule right now. Yes, kid, you're talking to yourself. Your future self. I'm going to be executed for this, but you know what? I accept that. I'm preventing something by talking to you that is WORSE than death. I can't tell you outright what to do, because the filters would catch it. This is the closest I can get, trust me. I can, however, send a little message.

You should probably read the first _word_ of every paragraph right now. Hehe.

* * *

Henry gulped. "Don't... Look... Behind..."

"YOU!" Allen yelled, knocking the boy over.

"Ow! What the heck! That hurt!"

"That was a nice one, Sanjay," Yuri complimented. "It was – quite refreshing."

"Blegh, you're the type of girl who likes scary stuff?" Allen revolted. "What a freak."

The quiet redhead felt a vein pop. It was a long while since that happened. And to Allen, of all people.

"Kinda creative, 'Jay." Henry told his friend. "Creeped me out for a second there."

Sanjay beamed.

Allen stretched. "Okay, time to go to sleep! I'll see you guys in the morning, kay? Goodnight~!"

Yuri's eyes widened. "But... I haven't -"

"Oh, lay off," the redhead dismissed her with a wave of his hand. "I bet you know nothing about creepypastas. 'Cause you're a freak."

Oh-no-he-_di-an't!_

"Oh yeah?" Yuri demanded, almost standing up. "Seriously, Allen? Is that how you want to get it down?"

Her older brother looked slightly surprised at her reaction. "Ooh, is little Yuri manning up? Ooh, how scary." He said in a high-pitched voice, flailing his arms about.

"You better listen, you little arrogant piece of shit." She said with a steely tone. Henry and Sanjay watched lightning bolts pass through the two sibling's eyes.

"Alright, big brother, the pleasure is all mine..."

* * *

**Pretty Portrait**

**Original: Under The Bed/I Know You're Awake by Unknown**

I've been lying down for hours now. It's 5:35 AM and there's not much I can do. You know what the worst part about my situation is? I'm in the same room with them. They keep looking at me, and I can't help but look back and try not to cry or scream. Their eyes are focused on me and their mouths are wide open. There's the strong scent of blood and I feel paralyzed with fear.

Here's the thing. The second I make my hint that I'm not asleep anymore, I'm completely screwed. I'm fucked. I will die and there's nobody around to save me. I've been trying ot think of a way out but the only idea I have is to rush for the door and run outside the front door and scream for help, hoping my neighbors hear me. It's risky, but if i stay here, I'll surely die and that's worse. He's waiting for me to wake up and see his masterpiece.

You're probably wondering what's going on.

My name is Allen -

**("Hey!")**

**("It's just a story, brother...")**

and about three hours ago, I had heard screaming from the other side of the house. And I got up and went to check on the noise before realizing I had to use the restroom. Instead of doing the smart thing and investigating, I used the bathroom first. I could've gotten myself killed right then from my stupid actions. But I actually did my business and took a peek outside the bathroom. There was blood on the carpet. I got extremely scared and ran back to my rom, hiding under my sheets like the pussy I was. I tried to convince myself to go back to sleep, that it was just some really vivid dream or soemthing.

But I heard the bedroom door open. Like the terrified child I was, I peeked from under my blankets to see what was going on. I could see something dragging my family into the room. It was not human, I can tell you that. It was a monster.

It propped my step-mother up on the edge of my bed, and made her face me. It then sat my little sister down in a chair and positioned her towards me as well. It then started rubbing its hands upon the wall, staining them with blood and then drew a drawing on it. This thing had made what it probably would call a masterpiece. To finish it off, it scribbled a message onto the wal that I could not read in the darkness.

It then positioned itself under my bed, waiting to strike.

I don't know how long has it been. The scariest thing now, is that my eyes have adjusted to the darkness since then and I can read the message on the wall. I don't want to look at it, because it's terrifying to think about. But I feel I need to see, before I'm killed.

I pek at the creature's masterpiece.

_I KNOW YOU'RE AWAKE_

* * *

Yuri looked at her step-brother and her two childhood friends. "Well?"

They didn't answer.

Heh.

1 – 0 Yuri.

* * *

**End of Bonus Chapter**

**[Footnotes]**

_**No one could object the blonde (1) when he decided to do something.**_

**Henry had blonde hair before he had brown hair. (dyed, I guess.) Makes sense? Yes, it does.**

**[End of footnotes]**

**You might notice Allen is much harsher to Yuri in this bonus chapter than his over-protective side last chappie. His change will be explained in a later chapter. (Hopefully)**

**If anyone knows the creator(s) of the creepypastas mentioned, please say it in a review so I can place the respectful credits! Thanks!**

**So... Sorry for not updating on a weekly basis and not updating the actual chapter. It's in the works and half-finished, don't worry! :D**

**This week was my exam week. (There are 4 sets of exams this year – this was the first set ever.)**

**Monday: English exams. :D**

**Tuesday: Maths exams. [SCREW THIS SHITTTTT]**

**Wednesday: Language exams. [YAY!]**

**Thursday (today): Science and Listening Comprehension exams.**

**Friday (tomorrow): Higher Language Exams. [I DON'T TAKE HIGHER LANGUAGE SO HAH! SCREW YOU!]**

**That's why I haven't been updating lately... Revising and all that. You guys understand, right? ^^"**

**Hopefully, I'll be able to get the actual sixth chapter up by tomorrow or by Saturday.**

**Wish me luck on my results~!**

**(Yeah she's probably going to fail her Maths and Science.)**

**- Strikey**


	7. Sudden Life

**[Review Replies]**

**zombiecake1190: Oh, you. I'm so flattered. :3**

**arkee: Hope you had a nice Chinese new year too. :D No, that's not their real band name... I hope...**

**oXo Akino oXo: Yes... He is kinda stupid...**

**And I'm sorry chapter 2 is taking too long! X( I promise I'll take care of it as soon as I finish this chapter.**

**Karisma Jestler: No, Diya/Chase chapter was just a filler... You didn't have to understand it. XD**

**ShadowBloodNinja: Oh dear, that does sound quite concerning. And you're a fan of Cry and Pewdie too? Awesome! XD Hallucinating cats too? Oh my we have so much in common. xDD**

**Manga lover: Umm... You live in... Indonesia? :/ I have a feeling you're the same age as me, or somewhere close? xD**

* * *

**Warning: This chapter contains vulgar content that may offend some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.**

**Who am I kidding? Characters in my fanfics always swear their asses off. _Pa-ha!_**

* * *

**Chapter Six:**

**Sudden Life**

_**16TH APRIL, FRIDAY**_

* * *

Neil looked at the black-haired girl with a look of puzzlement. Rio felt beads of perspiration roll down her neck.

What the fuck. Just -

What. The fuck.

"Oi, I asked you a question." Neil repeated, slightly growling in annoyance this time.

Processing...

Rio blinked.

Process completed.

The girl felt herself falling, and her eyesight gradually faded. Darkness surrounded her, as much as she could care.

* * *

Sanjay dashed down the stairs. His hair was in an absolute mess, eyes having bags under them due to lack of sleep, and his shirt was barely buttoned, leaving his chest wide open for the world to see.

He was late. So, so, late.

Eh, the timing wasn't that far off really. Sanjay's house wasn't even that far from Allen's. Still, it nerved him. It was the fact that he had overslept was what bothered him so much.

Someone like him was always on time. Always punctual. _Always_. I mean, screw all that nobody's perfect crap, Allen could bite someone's ass whenever he wanted to. It was good to play safe. And Sanjay liked playing safe.

Why did he oversleep? How could he forget to set his alarm? Screw that, why did he even take a nap in the first place?

_Ooh, Sanjay's got the hots for -_

Get those thoughts of his head, right now!

Sanjay stopped to take a breath for a moment. A small amount of anger swelled up in him. Stupid Henry. Stupid teacher. Stupid transfer student.

This school – if you, the reader, couldn't recall from the first chapter – ran classes through their intelligence. From A all the way to the G class.

Sanjay was in the A class. Together with Henry. Yeah, they're smartasses.

This transfer student was a girl. Her name was Amirah, claimed she was from Arabia or something. _**(1) **_And guess what?

Surprise, surpirise (not really), Amirah had dark skin and silver hair too. And she was pretty. Really pretty.

They could be friends. Sanjay and Amirah. Partners in crime. Something more, even.

Yeah, like that would happen anytime soon.

Sanjay looked up and slowed down. He was that close to where Allen's house was.

* * *

"OH MY GOD! SOMEONE GET HER A HOT TOWEL!"

"Rod, you idiot, we don't have a hot towel!" Allen barked.

"This is a house! Don't tell me you don't have a hot towel!" Henry spat.

"I'll go get a hot towel... If it'll help..." Yuri announced quietly, standing up and walking to the kitchen.

Allen quickly reacted, pulling the hem of his little sister's sleeve. "No! Big brother will get one for you - Henry, LAY THE FUCK OFF, will you?" he scowled in disgust, pushing the brunette away from him.

As soon as Rio/Rachel had fainted, Allen and Henry had stopped chasing each other, Yuri had peeked from her room as soon as she heard silence, Rod's face turned into WTF, Neil was speechless, and Soseki was just derping.

"Allen, you idiot! Are you that stupid to think that someone who's fainted is perfectly fine with sleeping on the _ground_?" Henry demanded, poking the redhead's chest. "Get her on the couch, put the hot towel on her forehead or cloth, whatever, and check her breathing! Don't you know anything about taking care of a sick person? _God_!"

Allen squinted his eyes. "... You talk like my mom."

Soseki facepalmed. "I'll be the one carrying her then..."

Carefully and gleefully, the older man carried the young woman onto the couch. Yuri came walking back from the kitchen with a container filled with water and a towel in her hands.

Her brows rose when she saw that Rachel was already lying down on the sofa. She gave a wandering eye to Neil, Rod, Soseki and her big brother. Which one of them had the pleasure of carrying a girl, she wondered.

"..." Silently, the bespecacled girl gently placed the cloth soaked with hot water on Rachel's forehead.

Rachel wheezed slightly.

"QUICK! ALLEN, DO CPR BEFORE SHE DIES!" Rod screamed in alarm.

"Stop panicking, dumbass! I don't know how to do CPR." Allen growled. "And even if I did know, I wouldn't waste a kiss on this person!"

_Damn, gurl, that's kinda harsh... _Henry thought.

Rod pouted. "But... I don't know how to do CPR either..."

Yuri raised her hand. "I know how to perform CPR -"

"No way am I letting you waste _your_ first kiss a girl!"

For the first time in a long while, the little sister scowled at her brother. "For your information, the personal matters regarding my first kiss is none of your concern!" she stated curtly, crossing brows.

"Are you saying that you've already had it?!" Allen demanded with wide eyes, switching his gaze from Henry to Yuri back and forth.

Henry mock-gasped. "Yuri's rebelling! Oh my God, Yuri's rebelling!"

"Excuse me, but we have a fainted woman on the couch here! _Just sayin_'!" Neil muttered.

Allen pierced his icy cold gaze with Neil's. The blonde gave him a look. "W-what?"

Soseki folded his arms. "None of us have any knowledge in CPR – apart from Yuri, who can't do it for said explained reasons."

Henry gave Neil a pierced gaze, which was similar to Allen's.

"Seriously, what the hell do you guys want from me?!" the blonde questioned, suddenly nervous.

Cue sexy smirks from said bishies.

"You're going to be the one giving her CPR, duh."

* * *

Sanjay knocked on the white door of Allen's. He finally made it. He was fifteen minutes later than usual, but maybe the boss could forgive him. Surely.

Not receiving any reply, the silver-haired man pushed the door open. "I'm coming in," he said, removing his shoes.

As soon as he opened the door, he was greeted with a horrifying sight.

Imagine yourself taking a picture.

So there's this one table... And a couch.

And the new member, Rachel, was lying on the couch.

And there's this blonde dude.

He's... Leaning over Rachel, very obvious of what's he's going to do, lips almost making contact with hers.

And Yuri, Allen, Soseki and some ginger Sanjay didn't know were just standing there.

It would have made a perfect Sleeping Beauty moment had Rachel and Blonde Dude been in – oh I don't know, Sleeping Beauty clothing.

Sanjay's mouth unconsciously opened by itself. "Do I want to know what events happened while I was gone...?"

"No. No you don't." Answered everyone.

* * *

She opened her eyes, letting light slowly flood her vision. Rio/Rachel felt something on her forehead. Something wet. And soft.

Cloth. It was red cloth. She sat up, holding the cloth in her hands as she did so.

Where the hell was she?

The black-haired girl looked around. A girl's bedroom? Was that where she was resting at? Rio was lying on a pink but plain bed, and the walls were plain white. Shelves full of books were at the side. A chest stood lain near the door.

_Oh yeah, now I remember. _Rio thought, getting a spanking by her memories.

Went to Allen's house because Mr. Mikhail was absent. Came in. Henry and Allen chasing each other. Yuri being freaked out. Blonde Boy spoke, then she fainted.

Oh.

The black-haired girl got up slowly. She felt dizzy. _I'm one of those cliché shoujo heroines who faints at every shocking scene, ain't I? _Rio thought sceptically.

She stood up and just for the heck of curiousity, inspected the room. Was it Yuri's? It looked like a girl's room. Rio looked at the shelf. She guessed that they were old books of some sort as all of them were thick and yellowed with pages. There was, however, a single book that looked like it was brand new at the last shelf.

Just out of curiousity, Rio picked a random book from the second shelf. The spine read '#2 199X', with a year number pasted on it. Flipping it open, the old-fashioned smell instantly greeted her.

* * *

_5 August 200X_

_Dear Diary,_

_Mama and papa are yelling at each other again. I don't like it. In fact, I hate it. Theyre yelling out words thats bad._

_I always run to my room when Papa comes home. He always doesnt smell good when he comes home at nyte. When they figth, I kuickly go into my room and hide. It blocks out the noises. They're scary. I remember papa telling me that beer and wine was supposed to be fore happy times. But he's destroying the house with them. I don't get it._

_Nothing new is happening around here._

_I can't sleep. I need to get a hold of myself. Mama says that I'll be having a new papa soon. Will that mean that my old papa will go away? I cant help but be sad at that. Mama also says that I'll be having a new brother._

_A new brother? Will that really be okay?_

* * *

Rio stopped reading. She took a few minutes to process what she had just taken in. These weren't books. They were diaries, weren't they? She took another book. Every page had a date firstly written, followed by an entry.

_Yuri..._

* * *

_9 August 200X_

_Dear Diary,_

_From now on I'm sharing a room with somebody else. My new papa looks nice, and mama always looks happy when she's with him. I think I like that. But I don't like my new brother. Mama got my room a new bunk bed and now I have to share it with Allen. He's 3 years older than me and wears glasses._

_He looks nice because he has a really handsome face, but I don't like him at all. He doesn't call me by my name. He took my breakfast and dinner away from me. He got me in trouble and made me do his chores. He's arrogant and stupid. When he picks me up after school, he doesn't bother to wait for me._

_But I suppose I can't really complain. Maybe one day all of us will be a happy family again. Maybe Allen will let me borrow his crayons one day. 'Cause that's what siblings do. They lend other their help._

_Right?_

* * *

"Sanjay and New Girl sitting on a tree,"

"Henry, leave me alone." said Sanjay.

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G~"

"Henry, I'm warning you." Sanjay repeated slowly.

"First comes loooove, then comes marriage,"

"HENRY." Sanjay said one last time.

"Then comes Sanjay with a baby carriage!"

The flustered teen grabbed a pillow and smacked it at the brunette's face. He gave a girly cry as he was almost smacked to the floor.

"What the heck is up with you guys?" Soseki asked, who was sitting on the bed.

Henry clicked his tongue. "So we're here wasting our time playing video games -"

"Courtesy of me," Allen interrupted.

"Instead of doing productive work like the band club is supposed to be doing."

Allen sniggered. "Day. Well. Spent."

Rod was lying on the floor together with Allen and Neil, playing Super Smash Bros in multiplayer mode while one other console was 'supposed' to be handed out to Yuri, but she didn't seem to care. Soseki was just trolling on Allen's bed while reading the newspaper like a boss. Sanjay was trying to get Henry off his back, and Yuri was reading a book with her legs crossed on the floor.

"Hey, Neil," Rod asked the blonde next to him. "You've recently transferred, right?"

_No shit. _He replied with a small nod, eyes fixed to the Nintendo 64.

"Were you in a band in your last school?"

"No." the blonde replied curtly.

"Oh." Rod said, and their conversation was over.

Meanwhile, off to Sanjay and Henry...

"Your eyes were like, popping when she walked into the classroom."

"Yes, she is very pretty... Wait, no, what am I saying?!"

"Awwwwwwww, 'Jay, just spit it out."

"Henry, NO -"

All of a sudden, the lights went out with an ear-echoeing pop. Darkness overcrowded the room. Allen let out an even more disturbing high-pitched scream as the Nintendo 64 shut down in darkness.

Silence.

Creek, creek.

"Why do I hear someone crying?" Rod muttered.

"I-I'm n-not c-c-crying...!" Allen cried.

"Oh calm down. I'm sure it's just a blackout." Soseki said, getting up from the redhead's bed.

"I-I'm n-not c-c-crying!"

"We get it dude, don't need to say it twice." Neil muttered.

Yuri almost giggled. Almost. "He doesn't say it, but this is the first time he's ever had a blackout in his entire life." she whispered to no one in particular.

"S-SHUT UP!" Allen was glad that the darkness was there to cover his blushies. "T-THIS IS YOUR FIRST BLACKOUT TOO!"

"Says the one that's crying..." The little sister said.

"Allen just yelled at his younger sister!" Henry mock-gasped. "Blasphemy!"

"... I'm going to go check on Ri – I mean Rachel..." Yuri announced quietly, tripping over a few things in the dark as she went out the room.

"Be careful." Henry and Allen both said at the same time.

As Yuri got out, the whole group was once again greeted with silence. Well, except for the silent conversation they were having.

_("-sigh- So... I'm blaming Allen for this. If you agree with me, say I.")_

_("I.")_

_("I.")_

_("I.")_

_("I.")_

_("Hey, that ain't fair.")_

_("Because you're in charge of this house and that concludes that you're responsible for this blackout because of playing too many video games.")_

_("Oh yeah? You waste my electricity everytime you on the lights to read the goddamn newspaper!")_

_(-rolls eyes- "I don't come to your house everyday.")_

_("Just shut up, Soseki Clark. And Clark's a stupid name for a last name. And I hate you. And you should know that!")_

_("Your last name is 'Fine', so...")_

_("BUUURN!")  
_

_("I will not calm down. That man just made fun of my NAME!")  
_

_("Yeah, yeah, look into the mirror idiot...")  
_

_("I would look into my awesomely handsome self but apparently there's a blackout in existence in my house, IDIOT!")_

_("BUUURN!")  
_

_("Rod, shut up!")_

_("Hey, Neil. How and what are you writing in the dark?")_

_("I have cat eyes and it's none of your business, now be quiet.")_

_("Hey guys...")_

_(-everyone- "Yeah, Henry?")_

_("I bet you've never heard of this, but... Allen once went to McDonalds without wearing a shirt and some chick took out a marker and wrote 'You're hot, marry me' on his chest.")_

_("-giggle-")_

_("Pfft...")  
_

_("-silence-")_

_("Lol...")_

_("Hey, where did you hear that from?!")_

_("Oh Allen. As your future-bro-in-law, it's natural of me to know.")_

_("I never approved of you marrying my sister!")_

_("Even better then! Both Yuri and I can rebel against you like Romeo and Juliet -")_

_("Yeah, and I bet you're the one who's Juliet.")_

_("No, it's Romeo and Juliet!")_

_("More like Juliet and Juliet.")_

_(-snigger)_

_(-snigger-)_

_(-snigger-)_

_(snigger-)_

_("HEY!")_

_("Hey guys, I never told you this but... Henry secretly fanboys over yuri porn!")_

_("True, and that's not the only yuri I like." -winkwink-)_

_("BUUUURN!")_

_("Apply cold water to burnt area...")  
_

_("You wanna play a game, Al? Okay then! Hey everyone! Allen once dated a girl and dumped her in VEGAS!")  
_

_(-mock gasp-)  
_

_("Allen, you went to Vegas without me?")_

_("I-I couldn't help it! She had major commitment issues!")_

_("Everyone, whoever thinks that Allen is a playa, say 'I'.")_

_("I.")  
_

_("I.")_

_("I.")_

_("I.")_

_("I.")_

_("Wait, shouldn't there be only four 'I's?")_

_("Huh?")_

_("Say what?")  
_

_("You're kidding me.")_

_("Henry, stop screwing around!")_

_("I'm not! Okay, everyone say 'I' again, including Allen and me. I.")_

_("I.")_

_("I.")_

_("I.")_

_("I.")_

_("I.")_

_("How many people are there in the room?")_

_("Me, Allen, Soseki, Neil, Rod and Sanjay.")_

_("There should be six people, right?")_

_("God I'm getting freaked out...")_

_("I'm scared...")_

_("I'm having goosebumps on my skin now, guys.")_

_("Oh my God! I just did a headcount and there are seven heads in the room!")_

_("No way!")_

_(-gasp-)_

_(-sob- "Mommy...")_

_("Don't cry, Rod...")_

_("Okay, anyone got a flashlight -")_

_("You guys are so rude, ignoring me the entire time.")  
_

Wait, what?

And so their conversation ended.

* * *

"Rio?"

The black-haired girl jumped in shock. Relief overwashed her when she realized it was merely Yuri's voice. The partner-in-crime who knew her secret.

As soon as the blackout had occurred, Rio didn't panic. She took a deep breath, debated on whether or not on what she should do with the diary in her hand, and decided to place it back onto the bookshelf. Then Yuri happened to enter right at that moment.

"Oh. You've awaken."

"... Yeah. I guess a blackout occurred?" Rio asked.

"It seems so."

There was awkward silence for a few minutes with slight shuffling here and there.

"... So are you a fujoshi?" _**(2)** _Yuri asked suddenly.

"What?"

"Nevermind," she replied quickly. "We should go back to my brother's room where everybody else is at -"

The lights suddenly flickered. It kept flickering on and off until it stayed lit for good. Rio's brow rose for a moment.

"... Okaaay," Yuri said slowly. "Shall we both go back to Allen's room now?"

"Yeah..." Rio replied with just as much slowness.

As Yuri and Allen's rooms were literally right next to each other, it didn't take long at all for them to turn the doorknob of one door and turn the doorknob of another.

As the door swung open, Rio swore she could feel Yuri flip out.

Allen, Henry, Neil, Sanjay, Soseki and Rod were all sitting cross-legged on the floor in a circle, and some blonde chick with a dress _way too short_ for her legs sitting cross-legged in the middle of their circle.

What. The heck.

"B-brother..." Yuri's face was full of calmness, but her voice was choking. "Y-you've been keeping a girl hostage in your room t-this whole time -"

"What'dup, daug?" The girl stood up, waving to Rio and Yuri. The redhead flinched when the chick touched her shoulder.

"Hello~" The woman smiled cheerfully. "Name's Witch Princess!"

* * *

"Okay. Why are you here exactly?" Allen asked, eyes narrowing.

Everyone was sitting cross-legged in a circle now. Rio felt beads of sweat running down her neck. Witch Princess? That sounded suspiciously similar to her 'diary-holder' get up. What the heck. Just what the heck. She looked at Neil, but he wasn't interested at all in making eye contact with her. His gaze was primary focused on the witch.

_Hold on, Rio. _The girl stopped herself. _You can't honestly confirm that the Neil in front of you is – __**that**__ Neil_.

Right?

B-but the way he spoke...

It sounds so damn _similar_.

"Witch Princess? Sounds suspicio'so to me." Neil growled.

There it goes again!

"Ah haha." Witch Princess giggled. "Let's just call it my nickname for now. What's the name of your so-called band?"

"Why do you need to know?" Henry rose a brow.

"... TDSB. The Digestive System Band." Soseki answered anyways.

Witch Princess was silent for a moment. "What a weird group of people she assigned me to..." the blonde muttered to herself. "But _whatever_! TDSB, there's supposed to be a Neil here and a – who was that? Ri – who?" she paused, taking out a slip of paper from her pocket.

"You know, for a Witch Princess, you're doing your job horribly wrong." Allen commented.

"Oh, pipe down. What do you know about turning people into frogs each and every day?"

Neil raised his hand. "I'm Neil right here."

Rio felt the need to scream as he spoke.

"Why do you remember my name but not Ri -"

"Can you just hurry up and pronouce the chick's name already?" Rio interrupted. She averted her eyes quickly to Neil and felt a strong sense of satisfaction when she saw that he was surprised.

_Yes! It's me! You know my name and said it to the Bitch Princess! You recognize my voice! It is you! NEIL! _She screamed silently.

"My memory when looking at pictures of hot guys lasts long." Witch Princess said, leading Neil to blush a bit. She squinted her eyes onto the slip of paper. "Goddamn, the Goddess's handwriting is so sloppy and ungraceful. What is this? Ree – Rana? Rao?"

Neil's eyes were lit with genuine surprise. "It's Rio, isn't it -"

"Is it Rina, dear Witch Princess?" Rio interrupted once more.

Neil's gaze burned into hers. She almost flinched again as she met with his bright red eyes.

_("Why deny, you idiot?!")_

_("I have my reasons, idiot! I don't want you to mistake me for another girl and make you look like a fool!")_

"Okay, good idea!" said the witch. "Let's call her Rina for now."

_Rio cringed a bit. I know she's actually referring to me when she says that, but..._

"I forgot her face when the Goddess showed me her picture, so Neil! Here!" the Witch Princess threw a yellow slip of ordinary paper into the blonde's direction. He caught it with his hands in surprise.

"Her not-so-legit instructions: Show that to Rina, whoever it is and tell her the thing in the paper. Simple. End of story, now I must be going now so toodles~" she said with a highly-irritating wave and disappeared in a flash of light.

"What... The fuck..." Allen said after all the events.

* * *

After so etcetra and etcetra events that happened, everyone had to go home because of the sudden time.

_Well, that was a productive day._ Rio thought bitterly as she waved Yuri goodbye. Sanjay, Henry and Soseki had left while Rod had stayed behind to do some more things with Allen. But as soon as Rio got down the stairs, she was stopped behind by a very angry-issued Neil.

He grabbed her hand and prevented from walking any furthur. "Wait."

Rio's eyes widened in a sudden shock. The blonde thrust the yellow slip of paper the Bitch Princess had supposedly given him earlier. She glanced at the very cursive handwriting.

_Rio Rachel McAfee, _

_Your death will be brisk._

The heck? Some kind of fortune cookie or what? She looked back at Neil, who was still grabbing her hand. His grip seemed to be tightening every second, and it was painful. His opened his mouth to speak.

"You. Me. Somewhere quiet. Now."

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

**[Footnotes]**

_**This transfer student was a girl. Her name was Amirah, claimed she was from Arabia or something. (1)**_

**I... Hereby declare the start of FemAmir and Sanjay together.**

**-shot-**

_**"... So are you a fujoshi?" (2)**_

_**If you don't know the meaning, Google it up. Right now. xD**_

**[End of Footnotes]**

* * *

**Chapter was boring?**

**Chapter was random?**

**Chapter doesn't make any sense?**

**Hey, not my fault I'm highly coffee-drunk!**

**- Strikey**


End file.
